When the Time Is Right
by Erudite19
Summary: When the time is right, you'll know what to do. When the time is right, hopefully you won't screw up. When the time is right, your parents will be spying on you.
1. Parents With No Lives

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO. Rick Riordan does.**

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><p>Percy Jackson walked into the arena on a bright Thursday morning. He was getting ready to instruct a master's sword class to fourteen kids who had arrived a week ago. Immediately they had found out that the kids were <em>very<em> good at sword fighting and had scheduled a class for them.

They would have started a while ago but some of them were injured and the others wouldn't leave them. They all had different personalities and looked different. Some of them even looked like the fourteen Olympians. (Since Hades and Hestia got thrones on Olympus.)

Today was the first day of the class. He would have to go easy on them because-

"Perseus Jackson put me down!" Annabeth yelled.

"No." He had woken Annabeth up that morning because she had overslept passed breakfast. Her cabin had already left to archery and she had insisted to go with them. He had stopped her because:

a) It was obvious that she was tired.

b) She was only tired because she had been up working on designs for Olympus late at night.

c) Her brothers and sisters were too scared of what she might do if they provoked her about her sleep.

and

d) What other person is best to talk to her about that other than her boyfriend.

"Percy, put me down now!" Annabeth whined. He had decided that he was going to carry her around all day long until she fell asleep. After she had gotten ready, he had slung her over his shoulder and ignored her protests to put her down.

He looked to the opposite side of the arena where the kids had already arrived and were laughing and looking in their direction. Percy decided to ignore them and do a check list to make sure that everything was ready for the sword fighting class.

Across the arena, one of the boys who had an elfish appearance, salt-and-pepper hair, and blue eyes tapped a boy who had green eyes and black hair. They both looked up at Percy who was ignoring Annabeth's protests and the boy who had green eyes smirked.

The boy who had blue eyes turned to a girl who had grey eyes and brown hair. "Look, Athena. I think your daughter and Perseus are getting along quite well and you can't do a thing about it."

"Oh shut up, Hermes."

A girl with silver eyes and auburn colored hair walked towards the group. "Oh I don't know Athena. From what I heard she's been staying up late to finish her designs for Olympus. She's done a great job so far. At least her boyfriend is taking care of her… no matter how ridiculous it looks."

A boy with black hair and blue eyes joined the group. "Look Artemis, Thalia is joining them."

Artemis watched her former lieutenant walk up to Percy and Annabeth. Thalia hadn't fallen in love like many other hunters had. She had chosen to quit the hunt because she wanted to spend more time with and look after her brother.

Thalia walked up to Percy and Annabeth with a funny look on her face. "Percy, what are you doing?"

Percy smirked. "Annabeth won't get any sleep at night and she's overworking herself so I'm going to carry her until she falls asleep."

Thalia rolled her eyes.

Annabeth looked up at Thalia which was kind of hard to do with her position on Percy. "Could you help me out Thals?"

Thalia grinned. "Sure. No problem." She surveyed Percy. "Percy, you might want to move her over to the right a little so she doesn't fall."

"Thanks."

"Thalia!" Annabeth whined, which was highly unlike herself but she really wanted to get back on the ground. She couldn't really do that because Percy had taken her knife away from her._ Go figure. He'll forget to disarm me when I'm near the sirens but he'll remember to disarm me when it means he might get hurt. _

Thalia smirked. "You'll thank me for this later Brain."

Nico shadow traveled from the corner and almost bumped into Thalia. "Sorry." He muttered. Thalia nodded.

Then Nico looked at Percy. "No. I'm pretty sure he has to move her up not to the right."

Thalia raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Annabeth huffed. "So which one is it?"

Thalia and Nico stared at her confused.

"Well if you're not going to help me down, you might as well make sure I don't fall."

Percy shrugged, which moved Annabeth a little. Thalia and Nico took one good look at Annabeth and then finally they said, "To the right."

Percy smirked. "Thanks."

"I got to go find the Stoll brothers." Thalia said. "They owe me a new bow from the last prank they tried to pull on me."

Nico smirked. "I'm coming with you. This'll be good." The two left the arena. The kids across from it were suppressing their laughter.

"Percy, put me down!"

"No. Annabeth you work too hard. You need some time off, okay? Chiron said that you can relax for today and if you're not going to take up that offer then I'll take it up for you. Okay?"

Silence.

"Annabeth? Don't give me a cold shoulder."

No answer.

He slung her around so he was holding her bridle style and realized that she had fallen asleep during his rant. He watched her sleep for a while then muttered, "She can listen to a teacher lecture for six and a half hours but then she'll fall asleep when I rant on about her sleeping habits." He sighed.

Then he walked across the arena to the kids who looked like they were going to burst out laughing. He furrowed his eyebrows then he said, "You all can pick partners and start sparring." He turned to a kid with a buzz cut and brown almost red eyes. "No maiming. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Then he walked out of the arena and to the Athena cabin-ignoring the looks from other campers and the grins from the Aphrodite cabin- where he tucked Annabeth in.

As soon as Percy was at the Athena cabin, all fourteen kids burst out laughing. "Poseidon," Zeus breathed. "Your son's a rite."

A boy with sandy hair and blinding white teeth breathed through his laughter, "Six and a half hours."

They all burst out in laughter and Artemis rolled her eyes at Apollo.

Ares however, pouted. "He told me no maiming."

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><p><strong>Tell me what you think about the story. Erudite19<strong>


	2. Strawberry Fields

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO. Rick Riordan does.**

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><p>Travis Stoll was perched in a tree by the grove across the strawberry fields. He sat on the second highest branch of a maple tree.<p>

He knew dawn was going to come soon but for now he crouched down and watched as the kids in the Demeter cabin came out to tend to the strawberry fields before dawn arrived. Because when dawn arrived the horn would blow to wake up the campers and then he would have to walk to breakfast alone, as he did so many times before.

Maple, the tree nymph who lived in that tree, had known Travis since he was thirteen. Her tree had been a base for many of his operations. Operations meaning pranks. She had seen Travis develop a crush on Katie Gardner, the head of the Demeter Cabin. She had known that he would get a crush the minute he and his brother put chocolate bunnies on the roof of the Demeter Cabin.

Every morning, since he was fifteeen, Travis would get up early, say hi to Maple, and then sit on the second highest branch of her tree while watching the Demeter cabin tend to the strawberry fields. Well not the whole cabin anyways, just Katie.

In an Oak tree nearby, six people crouched low, each on a different branch. One of the girls whimpered, "I don't like trees."

Artemis sighed, "It's alright Hera. Just sit on the branch and hold onto the tree trunk."

"It's a wonder she even got up here." Hermes said.

"Isn't it. Back when we were just a couple hundred years old, all of the elder Olympians used to climb trees or skip across ponds or throw a shield once in a while. She however, just sat by 'gracefully' and nagged us." This came from a boy, the oldest of the group, who had oily black hair and dark eyes that could look into your soul.

"Oh shut up, Hades." Hera huffed.

"Shhh. Be quiet or he'll hear us." This came from a girl who was extremely beautiful. Her eye color changed often and whichever hair color or eye color you liked, she had it.

"I still don't like him staring at my daughter." A girl with black hair and brown eyes that had some wheat braided into her hair said.

"But it's still sweet Demeter." Hermes said. "And Aphrodite looks like she's about to burst with happiness."

"Shhh." Aphrodite said. She clamped her hand over their mouths. "He turned around to look at us."

Travis had turned around but he didn't know where the sound came from so he turned back around. His thoughts shifted to Katie.

He knew he could never get her. Not just because he thought she was totally out of his league but because he had no idea how she felt about him. She probably hated him for all of the pranks he ever pulled on her but the truth was he only did it to get her attention.

He was too shy to actually walk up to her and ask her out or talk to her. He watched her bend down to inspect a strawberry. He watched her delicately hold the strawberry and turn it over in her palm. She was so sweet and gentle. He wished he could hold her, get close to her, talk to her-

The dawn came and he waited until he was sure that the entire cabin had left to go to breakfast. He wasn't sure if Katie had left because he had been watching the sun come up. He leaped from his position and said goodbye to Maple.

Katie looked up from where she was standing three feet behind the maple tree across the strawberry field. She heard another rustle and someone dropped out of the maple tree. She ducked behind the tree and saw Travis Stoll, of all people, say good bye to Maple.

He had been watching them. Probably on look out for a prank on her cabin. She was about to confront him when she looked closer and saw his shoulders slouched, a frown on his face, and his head down. She contemplated why he would be like that.

Maybe a prank had gone wrong?

But no the Stoll's pranks never went wrong. So what was it? He looked so down and sad that subconsciously, her heart went out to him. She hurried over to him and he looked up, his eyes wide and he was sure that he was blushing a bit.

He was certain that she was going to chew him out for spying on her. He knew that she knew. He could tell at one glance at her eyes that she knew. But instead she said in a soft voice that he had never heard her use towards him before, "Something wrong?"

He could spill it out. He could tell her everything and get it over with but instead of his mouth acting for him his shoulders did and he shrugged.

"Oh, come on Stoll. I can tell that somethings wrong with you. You haven't cracked any jokes on me or ragged on me. I know somethings up. Do you want to talk about it?"

There it was again. That soft voice. He smiled a bit to himself. Did she actually care what he felt? He thought so. She had never sounded so sincere to him. He gathered up his courage and said, "No. It's okay. Thanks for asking though." He smiled a little.

The breakfast horn rung in the distance and the two stood in a surprisingly comfortable silence. She looked at him and he thought about asking her out but when she looked away all that confidence left him. Instead he said, "Do you want to walk to breakfast, like together?"

She rolled her eyes but then smiled and said, "I'd like that."

So the two walked together to breakfast craking jokes and laughing and for one of the many times in his laugh, Travis smiled a truly happy smile.

Back at the Oak tree, Aphrodite was sniffling. "That was so cute. I just love those two."

Demeter rolled her eyes and then smiled a little. "I guess it's okay if they're together."

Hermes smiled a little and was about to start teasing Demeter when Hera yelped and fell down with a thud. They all held in their snickers while Artemis leaped down to examine if Hera had any wounds.

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><p><strong>Please review. Tell me which couple I should do next. Erudite19<strong>


	3. Dysfunctional Climbing Walls

Jason Grace walked from the arena. He was supposed to go to the rock climbing wall for his next class. When he reached the climbing wall, guess who was on the other side?

Drew. She was trying to seduce another Apollo guy. Again. When would that girl ever stop?

He ignored her and started getting ready. He prayed to the gods that whoever she was trying to seduce would snap out of her charmspeak. If you ask him it would have been better if they had left her in Greece.

The climbing wall started to rumble. He looked up and started climbing. He was half way through when one of the Hermes guys, who was operating the climbing wall told everyone that the controls were malfunctioning. Yeah, right. Probably just another prank. Nobody could get down because the lava had made a pool at the end of the climbing wall.

A little girl from Demeter cabin, who was nearby rushed to the Hephaestus and Athena cabin to get someone to fix the problem.

His arms were getting tired but he stayed still so he wouldn't fall off. He looked up to his right and he could of sworn that his heart skipped a beat. There was Piper McLean. She was yelling at Drew, who was somehow still trying to seduce that Apollo guy.

Down by the controls Leo was arguing with the Hermes guy. Something about bubble gum in the controls. At the very top of the climbing wall four people were hanging on for their lives.

Hades looked up from where he was watching Leo yell at the Hermes guy. He looked to his right at a kid that wasn't very attractive but not completely ugly, either.

"My, my Hephaestus." Hades said. "Your son has quite the language."

Hephaestus shrugged. "The first time I saw met him he chewed me out. Probably would of cursed if I wasn't a god."

Poseidon snorted. "Forget Hephaestus's son. Aphrodite's daughter has more of a language towards Drew."

Zeus nodded. "I've never heard such skilled cursing in my life." Then added as an after thought. "And that's a long time."

Piper had finally gotten Drew to stop seducing the Apollo guy. Drew had gotten bored doing it anyways. She had gotten a satyr to get her off of the climbing wall while Leo and the Hermes guy duked it out.

Jason took his chance. He climbed up to where Drew used to be and turned to Piper. "That was a good thing you did. Helping that Apollo guy out."

Piper blushed a bit and shrugged. "It's not a big deal, Drew's always trying to seduce some guy in this camp. She probably got bored of the Apollo guy and went to find some other guy to seduce."

Jason smiled and looked back where Drew had just been. Some how, being up there with Piper, he forgot that he could fly off the climbing wall. Thinking back on it, he didn't mind that he forgot.

Piper's hand had gotten tired from holding onto the rocks and she knew that she might fall sooner or later. "Um... Jason." Right after she said that she had momentarily lost her grip on the wall. Jason turned around just in time to catch her. He hauled her up and she grabbed the rocks to support herself.

"You okay?" Jason asked. Piper looked down to make sure she had a tight grip on the wall. "Yeah...thanks."

She looked up and for the first time, Jason noticed how close they were to each other. Piper knew she shouldn't trust herself on this but she could've sworn that they both had been leaning forward. They were one inch apart and both had their eyes closed.

Several people on the climbing wall who had seen what was going on were trying to hold back their smiles and supress their snickers. They were half a centimeter away. They could feel each other's breath on their faces when all of a sudden the climbing wall came back to life and they had to seperate to avoid falling. Leo, it seems, had stopped fighting the Hermes guy long enough to fix the wall.

They were sure that their faces were flushed. He wanted to say something to her, almost anything, but she smiled sadly at him and climbed up the wall.

Zeus smiled wryly at the top of the climbing wall. He, his brothers, and Hephaestus had seen the entire ordeal. Jason had been so close to getting Piper as his girlfriend.

Poseidon read Piper's thoughts and was heartbroken. She was so sad and hopeful that it was hard not to feel bad for her. He could've made her day.

Hephaestus went down the ladder on the opposite side of the climbing wall to inspect Leo's work and make sure that everything was in working condition.

Hades stood by and smiled sadly. He remembered the first time he met Maria. It was very similar to this.

Okay. It wasn't similar to this at all but he could sympathize with Piper. Maybe next time she got close to Jason he could scare her into Jason's arms with an army of skeletons.

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><p><strong>Which couple to do next? Erudite19<strong>


	4. Stray Arrows and Reasons to Stop Loving

Thalia Grace stands fifty meters from her target. She's concentrating so hard that it's a wonder she hasn't moved because of her ADHD.

She loaded an arrow in her bow. The other day she had yelled at the Stoll brothers for breaking her bow trying to pull a prank on her. She decided not to ask them for a bow because they would probably steal one from the Apollo cabin and try to give it to her.

When she had gone back to her cabin, there had been a brand new bow and a set of fresh arrows from Artemis. She had silently thanked Artemis, she was a great sister and would probably keep an eye on her until she started dating.

She concentrated a little longer and then let the arrow fly. Even without Artemis's blessing her arrow hit it's target. She smiled satisfactorily while some of the new kids marveled at her skill in archery. She didn't care if they looked. She didn't try to brag about her skill. That would be stupid, especially if someone bested her.

Like right now. Two of the new kids, one of them was a girl and the other was a boy-she didn't really catch their names- were much better at archery than she was. Though if you really looked at how they were shooting she was almost slightly better than the boy.

She loaded arrow after arrow and each hit the bull's eye. If she was lucky, the arrow she shot would split the previous arrow. That only happened a couple times. The two new kids could split their arrows ten times more than she could.

Across the archery field, she noticed Leo yelling at some Hermes guy. Something about bubble gum and the climbing wall. She didn't pay attention to him.

She prayed to the gods- but especially to Aphrodite-that he wouldn't notice her. She had enough going on in her life and didn't need a personal stalker. Next to her a kid who would've fit right with the Aphrodite kids giggled and smiled, probably at a joke that the guy next to her had told her.

She looked at the place that Leo had been before but didn't see him. Her face flooded with relief when she didn't see him. Instead Nico walked across the archery field and talked to Will Solace about something, then he walked off.

She loaded another arrow and was about to fire when she heard someone scream five feet away from her, "Hey Thalia!"

The arrow left the bow but it didn't hit the target. It hit the ground next to Will Solace-who was fifty meters to Thalia's right- who looked up at Thalia and frowned. Thalia yelped and jumped more than ten feet in the air. The only thing that kept her from falling was the fact that the air was supporting her.

She was fifteen feet in the air and she was sure that her face was completely white but since the other kids were watching she didn't complain about the height she was at.

"Whoa." Said a familiar voice. Thalia winced at the voice. She looked at the ground to the right of her and glared at the person there.

Her jaw was set and with her leather jacket, her black death to barbie shirt, her skull earings, and the black eyeliner around her eyes she could've scared ten hell hounds back to Hades. Add the fact that blue sparks were flickering all over her body and you've got one angry daughter of Zeus and a menacing look.

Some of the kids stiffled their laughter because a kid with blue eyes and black hair and the girl that was really good at archery were glaring at them.

However, the person who had said hey, looked at Thalia and said, "I thought you couldn't fly." Then he shrugged. "I guess there's a time for everything."

He was completely ignorant of the fact that Thalia was glaring at him. Probably because he received glares like that often.

"What do you want Leo?" Thalia said as she descended and grabbed her bow from where she dropped it on the ground. Her voice was filled with anger and it was very controlled like she was trying extremely hard to keep from cursing.

Leo smiled. In his life ignorance was bliss, so he ignored the way Thalia's voice sounded and replied with a bright smile, "I just wanted to say hi."

"Anything _else_?"

Leo shrugged. Thalia grabbed her arrows that had fallen out of her quiver when she jumped up and apoligized to Will. She started to walk away from the archery field when Leo started to follow her. When there was no one around them Leo started talking to her.

"So... How are you adjusting to camp life? Are you-?" She turned to him. Her jaw was still set but she had a soft look on her face that she had _never_ used with him and his face was a little shocked at how sincere she looked.

"I need to go Leo." Then she walked away without looking back at him. Leo stared at her retreating form for a while and then broke out into a sad smile, _Maybe she's warming up to me?_

_But then again, she didn't look back._ He frowned again and was just about to go when he could've sworn she had looked at him momentarily. Leo wouldn't stop trying though. He knew that he could get through to Thalia. If she would just allow him, he would be the perfect boyfriend to her. Love her, adore her, comfort her, make her laugh with his corny jokes, give her his undivided attention, be faithful to her-

He stopped himself. If he kept on going he would just get sad because he couldn't do all of that to her right now. _One day, _he promised himself._ One day I will get to do all of that._

Thalia turned back momentarily to see Leo with a frown on his face and her heart broke into a thousand pieces. She didn't want to leave him there. But... she didn't need her heart broken into a _million_ pieces like when she loved Luke. That was why she had joined the hunt in the first place.

She wasn't sure she wanted to tear down that protective wall she had spent so many years building around her heart, but it seemed like every day, with his stupid comments or his stupid compliments, that Leo was attacking that wall little by little and slowly tearing it down.

She just didn't want to get hurt again like last time. She wasn't sure that Leo could tear down the wall to win her heart. Even if he did, would he build another wall to protect it? Or would he leave it vulnerable, without any protection, and break it?

Artemis sighed. There was something clearly going on with Thalia and Leo. She had never seen Thalia like that around any boy before.

Aphrodite sighed next to Artemis. "Ahh, young love." She turned to Zeus and said excitedly, "Aren't you happy Zeus. Your daughter's in love and she barely knows it. I think that's the best part. When they're not sure how they _really_ feel."

Zeus only half listened to what Aphrodite had said. In his mind, he was making a mental note to talk to Jason about this 'Leo' character.

Apollo smirked. This was something that he could use against Artemis. He wouldn't say anything now because his sister would have to think things through about what was happening with Thalia and Leo.

Artemis glanced at Zeus. She agreed with him. She would have to take a look at Leo also. Thalia was her half-sister but over the years, they had grown closer until they had been almost like real sisters. She would look out for Thalia and make sure that she didn't get hurt with Leo like she did with Luke.

Will Solace yelped from the other side of the field. Poseidon, who was extremely horrible at archery, had hit the exact place where Will had been standing. The bow should've been stuck to the ground but it kept on bouncing all over the place and Will had to keep avoiding it.

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><p><strong>I might not be able to update until next weekend because I'm starting school next week and Fan-Fiction cannot come first. :(<strong>

**I will try to write as much as I can every weekend so that I can post during the week but no promises. The most I'll be able to update is two chapters each week _if_ I'm lucky.**

**This counts for all of my stories.**

**Please review. Suggestions to which couple I should do next are welcome. I'm thinking about doing Clarisse and Chris.**

**Erudite19**


	5. Love and War

Clarisse La Rue crouched low in the underbrush. Ten feet to her left there was a low rustle. She didn't know who had made the sound but she was ready to attack just about any one to protect the perimeter around her flag.

She had put herself on flag patrol because at last week's game, a whole legion of Roman soldiers had come to ambush the flag. They had struck at the weakest part of the Greek army and stolen the flag. It had been a harsh lost to the Greeks. There was no way that they could have known where to strike unless the Romans had a spy.

She wouldn't blame the Romans though. The Greeks had a spy too.

She stopped her thoughts and focused on her surroundings again. Surely the Romans weren't dumb enough to send an entire legion again. They had to know that the Greeks would put up defenses around their flag. The entire Ares cabin had volunteered to protect the flag after the devastating lost.

The plan had been to put up defenses around the flag for the first half of the game and then one by one, the Ares cabin would leave the flag defenseless.

Now I know what you're thinking, _I thought the whole purpose was to protect the flag? _If the Romans are smart, then they'll think that the Greek flag is heavily guarded and won't do the same thing that they did last week.

Mars sat perched on a tree branch. It had become kind of like a routine now-for the gods-to sit on top of a tree branch and spy on their kids when they were in the forest. He had agreed with the Greeks' plan. It was well thought out but very risky.

He hoped that Percy Jackson had really thought out this plan. The Athena kids would've made this plan but the Minerva kids had the Bacchus cabin slip alcohol into the Athena kids' goblets at lunch right before the Greeks had decided to meet for the Capture the Flag plans. Mars thought that drugging your siblings showed that you were pathetic and desperate to win the game but he hadn't said anything when they had thought out the plan.

If you talked to the right guy in the Mercury cabin, you could get just about anything smuggled into camp. That's how the alcohol got slipped into the globlets. The Greeks had been extremely mad when the Athena kids had been drugged. Annabeth was going to explain the plans, but since she was at the infirmary recovering from her overdose, Percy had been appointed to give the plans. Percy was chosen to give the plans since Annabeth had probably told him since they were so 'close'.

He-a Roman god- had hoped for the Greeks to win because his 'stupid' Greek entity had made a bet with Minerva that the Greek side would win. _Minerva-of all the gods on Olympus- is who his reckless Greek side had decided to make a bet with? _Was he drunk at the time that he had made that bet?

He focused back on Clarisse who had suddenly become alert.

There was that rustling sound again. From one of the bushes across Clarisse, an all gold helmet with a red plume popped out. _A Mars kid no doubt._ Clarisse thought.

She waited to see if he would go for the flag but then he just turned around and walked away. He had probably sensed her and didn't want to pick a fight. He was such a poor excuse for a child of Mars. He walked away, probably to get someone more brave to get the flag.

She stayed there for awhile and when she got bored, she started to clean her finger nails with her knife. In the distance, she heard hooves galloping through the forest. Chiron was scouting the forest for anyone who needed help. Both sides were pretty nasty when it came to war.

Suddenly, her vision became blood red. Two arms wrapped around her waist and she started to struggle against who was holding her. She realized that a red blindfold had been wrapped around her head and put over her eyes.

Whoever it was had to be older than her at least a year or her exact age because they were pretty strong. She had decided that it was a he because their arms were hairy and rough? Who ever it was, was strong also. It was probably a Roman. They exercised too much for their age.

She had started to get free from his grasp and was about to reach for her knife that she had dropped on the ground to assault who ever this was, when they let go of her. She twisted to the ground and picked up her knife. She pointed it at her attacker, expecting it to be a Roman when she looked up and her face twisted from shock to confusion to a smirk.

"What are you doing here Chris?" Clarisse asked. "Shouldn't you be keeping tabs on the Romans?"

He smiled at her and answered. "Nico already has the flag. Last I saw him, he was being flanked by Thalia, Connor and Travis, and a couple of Apollo archers to keep off the Romans. They'll get to the boundary soon enough. Which means..." He wrapped an arm around his girlfriend's waist. "That I can stay here with you for the rest of the game."

He was careful not to be sappy around Clarisse because he knew that she didn't like that. She liked a man that could beat people up, protect her (not that she needed protecting), and comfort her (what girl doesn't need that?), not a spanish soap opera fan.

She smiled a little but then she said, "We still need to look out for any-" She was cut short because Chris decided to shut her up with a kiss. Usually if anyone ever interrupted her, she would yell and curse at them and Chris would have to hold her back.

But the way that Chris decided to interrupt her was so intolerable and so insufferable (which was two of her favorite words) and so like him that she just had to allow it.

They spent maybe the next thirty minutes-Clarisse didn't care how long and she was too occupied to try to care-sitting under a tree that was covered by bushes, making out and doing so many things that if I descibed them, I would probably have to change the rating on this story.

Suddenly a rustling broke out of one of the bushes. The couple stopped making out momentarily to see who it was. The same Roman boy that Clarissse had seen earlier came out of the bushes and made a run for the flags. Chris looked at Clarisse who shrugged and continued her 'interesting conversation' with him.

Chris didn't mind. He trusted his girlfriend's judgment. Especially if she wasn't freaking out over a Mars kid trying to get the flag. Snaps started to ring in the direction that the Mars kid had gone. There was probably traps put their by the Hephaestus cabin. That's why Clarisse hadn't cared much when the kid had advanced towards the flag.

When the traps had stopped going off, the couple looked up expecting to see the kid stuck in one of the traps but he was two feet away from the flag.

Clarisse sighed heavily and without looking she threw her spear. It snagged onto the kid's pants with so much force that it threw him against a boulder it had imbedded itself into. There was a loud ripping sound and now a pair of boxers with a bloody spear on it was exposed. The kid whimpered and took off his jacket to cover his boxers. He tried to desnag Clarisse's spear from the boulder and get free but it was electric and zapped him each time.

Clarisse and Chris examined the kid from where they were and smirked.

"Remind me never to get you angry." Chris said. The horn sounded off in the distance and a mighty roar was heard from the northern part of the forest which was where the boundary lines for the Romans were. The Greeks had probably made it past the creek.

Right about now, Clarisse would lead her brothers and sisters to her cabin but as I said before, she was too occupied at the moment to care.

Ares stared dumbfounded as his daughter made out with the son of Hermes. Hermes, who was next to him, was cackling so much that he forgot that he was on a tree. When he threw his head back to laugh he lost balance on his branch and fell into the underbrush _still_ cackling.

Apollo looked down at Hermes and then at Ares' face and then _he _started cackling too. He fell right on top of Hermes and the two stopped cackling simultaneously.

When they had readjusted theirselves so that they could breathe again, they resumed their hysterical laughter. Dionysus rolled his eyes at them and used a grape vine to swing from tree to tree and get back to his cabin.

Aphrodite sighed in a daze. She had become accustomed to climbing trees. She only did it if it meant viewing a couple up close. "Love and war go so good together." She leaned on Ares' shoulder and snuggled up to his side, momentarily snapping him out of his daze.

Hephaestus ignored what Aphrodite was doing and chuckled at Ares' face. "Look on the bright side. You won the bet against Minerva. That _hardly_ ever happens." When Hephaestus looked back at the couple making out on the ground, he almost gagged. "Woa! P-G 13!"

He vanished in an instant. Aphrodite looked confused. "What's he talking about? This is the best part!" A bag of popcorn flashed into her hands and she layed on the trunk of the tree to watch the couple 'talk' to each other.

Ares looked momentarily disgusted at Aphrodite and then he flashed out too, unable to take any more 'love'. Apollo and Hermes stopped laughing. They couldn't laugh at Ares anymore because he left so they flashed out also.

Clarisse and Chris were pretty sure that Capture the Flag was over, but right now, they were in their own little world.

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><p><strong>Running out of couples to do. The more suggestions you make, the faster I'll be able to update. I owe you all at least two chapters this weekend.<strong>

**Erudite19**


	6. Archery and Payback

Connor Stoll was crouching low in a bush and surveying his plan. If it worked correctly, the entire stock of arrows in the Apollo cabin would become sticky. The entire camp used their arrows from the Apollo cabin. Tomorrow the Minerva cabin had archery practice. He would challenge them to an archery contest. When they pulled back on their arrows, it would backfire on them and Connor would win the contest.

That would teach them for getting the Athena cabin drunk.

He smiled as he checked and fixed his plans. Now all he needed to do was wait for the perfect timing. He couldn't pull off his prank in the morning because the Apollo cabin woke up earlier than anyone at camp and didn't sleep heavily. They pratically woke up with the sun. He couldn't let the Apollo cabin about the prank because they could spread gossip as fast as the Aphrodite cabin.

He would have to pull it off at night. The Apollo cabin was especially tired at night. Who wouldn't be after leading a one hour camp fire? Besides, if you didn't already notice, Connor wasn't exactly stealthy. He would have to wait until they were in deep sleep to do his prank. Suddenly the conch shell rang in the distance. Campers started to walk back to their cabins.

Connor stayed low because if the Harpies found him, it wouldn't be good. He had used a spray that he had stolen from the Hecate cabin during lunch. If he put it on correctly then his smell would be masked from the Harpies for three hours. Usually he would do this type of stuff with his brother but lately Travis had been hanging out with Katie more often. It didn't matter of course because Travis would cover for him at the Hermes cabin.

An hour and a half after curfew and after the Harpies finished checking the camp for any stray campers, Connor put his plan into action. He thanked Hermes that the spray had worked (he would of thanked Hecate but then she would have probably realized that he had stolen the spray and that wouldn't have gone well) and then gathered up the things he would need to pull off the prank and put it in a bag.

As soon as he got out of the bush he ran into someone. "Ow!"

In the distance, he heard one of the Harpies screech. His eyes widened and he threw his bag in the bushes. He needed to get away from this person because they would attract the Harpies toward him. He dove into the bushes and stayed as silent as he could. He could still hear the Harpies in the distance.

The figure on the ground sat up. "Ow...This better have not broken any of my nails."

Where had he heard that voice before...?

"I'll just blame this on Piper tomorrow."

Drew! That's who it was. But what was she doing out of her cabin late at night? Then again, he shouldn't be thinking that because he was out of his cabin too.

Although he didn't like Drew that much, he didn't want her to be eatened. He leaped out and grabbed her by the arm. He covered her mouth so that she wouldn't scream and pulled her into the bush with him. Luckily.. Drew didn't exercise that much so she wasn't that strong.

He held his hand over her mouth while the Harpy passed by their hiding spot. He continued to hold it until he was sure that the Harpy was on the other side of the camp. He released her and she pulled herself away from him. She stayed in the bush though because she didn't know if the Harpies were still around. She squinted her eyes in the dark and looked at the figure in front of her.

"Travis?"

Connor looked slightly offended. He didn't care that much because lots of people confused him with his brother. Still... after so many years you'd think people would know the difference between him and his brother.

"No. It's Connor. Drew... what are you doing out of your cabin late at night?"

Drew snorted. "You shouldn't be talking. If it was any of your business why I was out so late then-"

Connor raised his hand up. "Forget I asked. Now, you should probably get back to your cabin."

Drew looked at Connor and said, "Whatever." She was about to leave but she hesitated. Because she was a chiild of Aphrodite, she had a tendency to look at someone's outfit. She just couldn't stop herself from doing it. Connor, she noticed, was wearing all black and had a duffle bag slung over his shoulder. He also smelled really weird. In fact, he smelled like grass and dirt and _nature_. His entire body smelled like that. She realized that he was probably in the middle of a prank.

She had never seen anyone in the Hermes cabin in the middle of a prank before. Usually, the next day the prank was already set and they just waited for someone to step in it.

It intrigued her. She didn't know _why?_ Was Hermes doing this to her? Just being this close to Connor in the underbrush made her want to go steal something or hijack a car. This wouldn't really be a problem since she had charmspeak.

She thought about it and then decided to go along with this. When's the last time that this camp had gossip? Besides, Connor _was_ kind of cute...

"I'm not going anywhere." Connor looked at Drew with a surprised expression on his face. "You're pranking someone right?"

"Wait a minute. You want to help?" Connor asked incredulously. Drew hesitated again then nodded.

"You can't stop me from helping Stoll. If you try to I'll just tell Chiron and Lupa tomorrow."

Connor set his jaw. He didn't want anyone along with him while he was pranking. Especially not anyone who was unexperienced. Then again, Drew did want to help. Maybe he could use her in some type of way...

He stopped himself. She was charmspeaking him. He was sure of it. Then an idea popped into his mind. He could use her to charmspeak any Apollo kids who woke up, back to sleep. This would be risky though. She wasn't even dressed for this. She was a walking neon advertisement for hot pink.

Connor sighed. "Alright. Here's what were going to do..."

They ran to the Apollo cabin, stopping once in a while to hide behind cabins and to check if the coast was clear. When they reached the cabin, Connor opened his duffle bag and took out two pairs of shoes.

Drew rolled her eyes. "What are those going to do?" She whispered. "There just a really bad fashion statement to what you're wearing."

"We need to go through the top of the Apollo cabin because they have a glass roof where the sun comes down. We can open one of the glass panels and sneak through there."

Drew looked slightly impressed. "How did you know that?"

Connor shrugged. "If you're going to do a prank, you need to know about your subjects first."

"I still don't get what the shoes are for."

Connor smirked and put his arm around her waist. "Hold on." Drew was about to protest when Connor whispered, "Maia!" Wings sprouted from the back of Connor's shoes and started flapping fast. They shot up into the air and Drew had to hold onto Connor tightly so that she wouldn't fall.

After some steering malfunctions and a couple of choice words from the son of Hermes, Connor managed to land them softly and quietly on the roof of the Apollo cabin. Connor would have started working on getting into the Apollo cabin by now but Drew was still holding on tightly to him with her eyes closed. He cleared his throat. "Drew, you can let go now."

Drew opened her eyes to see that they had landed already. She blushed scarlet and seperated from Connor. He immediately started working on the nearest glass panel and prying it open. After several failed attempts with a screw driver-all of which Drew had quietly laughed at- Connor took a blowtorch from his bag, much to her amusement, and began melting a big circle in the roof.

When he had finished making the whole and the edges had cooled, Connor held onto Drew again-which made her blush considerably-and before they descended he told her, "I need you to watch the kids in the cabin and make sure that they're all asleep. If any of them wakes up, I need you to charmspeak them back to sleep."

Drew nodded and Connor whispered, "Maia!" After they descended into the cabin Connor walked to what looked like a closet on the other side of the room. He pressed a hidden panel right next to the closet, one Drew hadn't seen, and the door subsided to another room, an endless hall filled with arrows.

Connor searched the aisle until he found a shelf labeled 'Minerva Arrows'. He smiled mischeviously and brought out 'Monster Glue' that he had snuck into camp earlier this summer and started to apply it onto the arrows. He used gloves to apply the glue so that his finger tips couldn't be found on the arrows and so that he wouldn't get stuck to the monster glue.

Drew stayed near the bunk beds and surveyed the Apollo cabin. There was a golden light emitting from everywhere. It was a wonder that these kids could sleep at night. One of the boys on the right started to move on his bed. She recognized the boy as Will Solace, senior counselor of the Apollo cabin.

"W-what's going on? Who's in the arrow vault?"

Drew hurried over to Will's bunk and gently pushed him down onto his bed.

"Drew?"

"Why don't you just go back to sleep Will?" Drew said. She made sure that when she said it, her voice was full of confidence. "Forget this ever happened okay?"

Will hesitated and then eventually went back to sleep. Drew felt a tap on her shoulder. She jumped and turned around. Of course, there was Connor Stoll, grinning like a maniac at her. "Were ready to go. Come on."

She hadn't even noticed that he had finished his job. They positioned theirselves under the hole that Connor had made earlier and Drew held onto him. He didn't even have to ask her to. She knew what to do.

He whispered, "Maia!" They flew up through the whole and after Connor fixed the hole in the roof-something that he had learned from Beckendorf a long time ago- they descended to the ground.

Drew was about to walk away but Connor pulled her back. "Do you remember the plan for tomorrow?"

Drew nodded. "Normally I wouldn't care about doing this but..." She shrugged. "The Venus kids _really_ get on my nerves. I'll be happy to see the embarassed looks on their faces when the Minerva kids' arrows backfire."

Connor grinned broadly and nodded. "Good. Until next time, milady."

Before Drew could say anything Connor dashed to the Hermes cabin and jumped through one of the windows there. Surprisingly, no shouts or yells were heard from the Hermes cabin.

Drew decided to go back to her cabin before the Harpies came back.

Hermes woke up from his bunk in the Hermes cabin. "W-what's g-going on?" He looked on the floor and saw a figure sprawled out on it, right where a window was. He squinted in the dark to see who it was.

Connor was sprawled out on the floor in a deep sleep. _Strange. I could've sworn I heard a sound come from the window._ Hermes thought. He shrugged and went back to sleep.

Connor finished the food in front of him. He rubbed his eyes so that the sleep in it would disappear. After breakfast, he planned to go down to the archery field to watch the Minerva cabin 'practice' their archery. As he talked to the other kids in his cabin, Drew was busy spreading a rumor that something big was going to happen at the archery field.

The entire camp was going to witness the prank. He stood up from his table with a goofy look on his face, just as Chiron and Lupa were finishing giving the announcements.

"I bet," Connor said in a loud voice. Everyone turned towards him. "that I can shoot an arrow better than the Minerva cabin!"

Some people stared at him for a while before everyone burst out laughing at him. Travis tried desperately to pull him down but he didn't sit. "I'm serious!"

Everyone quieted down after this. Some people looked at him like he was crazy. Someone from the Mars cabin said, "Sit down Greek!"

Connor stood still while several Romans laughed at him. He gestured to the Minerva Cabin and told the Romans, "You can laugh at me all you want but apparently the Minerva cabin is scared of me."

The leader of the Minerva cabin turned to Lupa. "Oh come on. This has to be a prank or something. Why should we waist our time trying to prove ourselves."

Connor turned to the person who had said that. "Isn't that what you do in Rome. Prove yourselves to your fellow soldiers. We haven't seen your cabin do that yet. Besides, I've seen you at archery practice. Your skills are horrible."

By now, the leader of the Minerva cabin was as red as a tomato. "_Fine_. We agree to do your little challenge."

Before Lupa or Chiron could speak up to stop the contest, Connor said, "Swear to the styxs that you'll do the challenge."

The leader narrowed her eyes but she sweared on the styx. Connor did too. He turned to Chiron and Lupa. "Well?"

Lupa glanced at Chiron, who sighed. "Since you have both sweared on the styx, you must keep your promise. The contest shall take place immediately after breakfast. Any campers can come and watch if they want to."

Lupa nodded along with Chiron. "Since you have issued this contest Connor, do you have any conditions?"

Connor smiled mischeviously, a smile that the entire camp new. Suddenly, the leader of the Minerva cabin didn't feel so good about this contest. "If I win, the Minerva cabin has to apologize to the Athena cabin for getting them drunk before Capture the Flag on Friday and they have to admit that the Athena cabin is smarter than them."

"Ooooh!" was echoed through the Greek side as the Minerva cabin paled considerably.

"And if I win," said the leader. "The Athena cabin has to be our slaves for a week." Now the Greek side paled and the Roman side cheered.

Connor narrowed his eyes. He prayed to Hermes that the 'Monster Glue' was still working and sticky. It had magical abilities that allowed it to stay sticky for twenty-four hours. "I agree to your terms."

The Athena cabin, but mostly Annabeth and Malcom, glared at Connor. Percy was giving off some bad glares also. Travis pulled Connor down to his seat. "Duuude. What was that? The Athena cabin is going to murder you after this is gone. Wait- no they won't. _Percy_ will murder you. Do you not see the glares he's sending our way. Are you even listening to me? Why are you smiling that way?-Oh! You have a prank planned don't you?"

Connor just smiled and went to get ready for the big event.

After breakfast, the entire camp was gathered by the archery field. The Greek side was ready to see Connor fail and the Roman side was ready to see the Athena cabin dragged off as slaves.

Chiron stomped his hooves on the ground to silence everyone. "Now. We will start the contest that Connor issued this morning against the Minerva cabin. The terms for Connor are that the Minerva cabin has to apologize to the Athena cabin and claim that the Athena cabin is smarter than them. For the Minerva cabin, the terms are that the Athena cabin has to be their slaves for a week." He stopped momentarily so that the Athena cabin and Percy could glare at Connor.

"The Minerva cabin will go first and then Connor will go."

The kids from the Minerva cabin smirked evilly at Connor and at the Athena cabin before they got into place. "Ready!" Chiron shouted. "Aim! Fire!"

The Minerva cabin released their arrows but none of them made it to the targets. Some arrows managed to make it ten feet before falling to the ground. Other arrows flew up in the air the opposite direction that they were supposed to go. The last couple of arrows backfired and hit the archers in their heads, knocking them out clean.

The Greek side burst into laughter while the Roman side stared dumbfounded at the results that occured. Chiron trotted up, stiffling his laughter, and said, "I believe it's Connor's turn."

Before the Minerva cabin could do protest Connor walked up and readied his bow. "Now it's time to show how a real archer shoots a bow."

"Ready! Aim! Fire!" Connor released his arrow and it just off the center of the target. The Greek side started cheering and patting Connor on the back.

"Wait a minute! He pranked us! He had to. The arrows wont even come off of our hands. They're sticky." The Minerva leader shouted. The entire camp got quiet.

Annabeth smirked evilly. "Technically... you bet that you could shoot an arrow better than Connor. Your terms were that we-" She gestured to the Athena cabin. "would be your slaves. You never said that Connor couldn't prank you during the contest. Therefore, the bet remains in intact. You lost. Admit it."

The Greek side exploded into cheers again as the Minerva leader grimaced. "Connor! Connor!"

Connor raised his hand and silenced everyone. "I couldn't have done this-" He gestured to the Minerva kids knocked out on the floor. "without my accomplice's help."

Several people started to look at Travis but everyone was surprised when Connor walked up to Drew and said, "Milady."

Several people gasped. "Drew helped you with the prank?" Piper said surprised. Connor nodded. He put his arm out to Drew, who shrugged and intertwined her arm with his. They both were proud smiles as they began walking away from the crowd.

Travis shrugged and said, "What the heck." He along with the rest of the Hermes cabin started cheering for Drew and Connor. Later on the entire Greek side cheered along with the Hermes cabin.

The two passed the Minerva cabin and gave them innocent smiles as they admitted to the Athena cabin that they were smarter than them. The Apollo cabin was confused to how Connor and Drew managed to get in their cabin. As Drew walked away with Connor she thought that maybe Connor wasn't _totally_ out of her league. Maybe he was just _right_ there.

"Now theres something you don't see everyday." Poseidon said. The rest of the Olympians agreed. They had never seen something like that happen before.

Hermes shrugged. "Right now, I don't really care much. I'm too busy filming Minerva's face. She's still in shock that her cabin lost the bet."

The rest of the Olympians turned to see Minerva with a shocked and confused look on her face. Poseidon leaned over to Hermes. "Send me a copy of that. I'm going to put it up on my Facebook account."

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><p><strong>Finally. I know this is a long chapter but I'm trying to introduce Drew and Connor to each other. Please review.<strong>

**Erudite19**


	7. So Many Chances

**The chapter is finally finished.**

**I will post as much as I can this weekend. I'm aiming for three chapters on each story but I do have a science project to finish so...**

**I AM A FULL SUPPORTER OF THEO OR THALEO. Thalia and Leo. **

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><p><em>cshhhkkk!<em>

"Is this-"

_cshhhkkk!_

"Thing working?"

_cshhhkkk!_

"There you go." Connor Stoll smiled broadly into the camera that Drew was pointing towards him. He stepped out of the shot momentarily and Drew put the camera down. He stepped close to her and she adjusted his curly and untamable brown hair into something television worth. He liked the feel of her hands in his hair. It felt good. Almost like how his mom used to do it. Except this felt different. It felt-

She stopped fixing his hair and picked up the camera again. He stepped back and admired his hair in the mirror that Drew had on her bed. They were in her cabin. Lately they had been doing a lot of pranks together or just spending time together. They hadn't planned it like that, it had just happened.

For instance, yesterday-two days after the prank on the Minerva cabin- they had bumped into each other at Capture the Flag. They had both been caught by some Romans and their weapons had been taken. They were bound and left on the floor. After sitting in silence for about thirty seconds and not moving at all because of the tight bonds of the rope, the ADHD had kicked in and he had started a conversation with Drew.

At first they had nothing to talk about. He had been staring at Drew. It seemed so weird how much makeup she put on. Connor thought that on other people, this much makeup would look horrible but Drew managed to rock it. He had asked her-out of curiousity-how she made so much make up look so good. Then realizing what he had said, he had blushed furiously.

Drew had blushed too. She was pretty. She knew she was pretty but because of her attitude towards others she never got complimented. Nevertheless, she had responded because he looked down right serious despite his blush. There was nothing on his face that made him look like he was lying. Drew would know if he was lying because she had dated a son of Hermes before, she couldn't remember his name even though it was about seven years before, (only to get her rite of passage for her cabin) and she knew how to read a person's face. Connor was not lying and there wasn't an amused look on his face.

They had talked so much that they weren't aware of the time. Eventually, they had thought of a prank to pull on the Venus kids when Connor remembered that they irritated her and mentioned it. They were found in the woods, four hours after Capture the Flag was over, sitting on the ground and talking. They had pulled the prank on the Venus cabin that very morning. A prank similar to the golden mango prank except this one had a better effect. The Venus kids fought more brutally and some of them ended up cursing their brothers or sisters. The Greek side had laughed so hysterically that by the time they finished laughing, their food was cold and hard. Connor was having a hard time laughing because one of the new kids at the Aphrodite cabin had glared at him.

Then they ended up hiding for most of the morning to get away from the Venus kids. They were in her cabin right now. Alone... He knew there was a rule against that. That two campers that didn't have the same godly parent shouldn't be in a cabin alone with each other. _Especially the Aphrodite cabin._ But he didn't care because as far as he could figure out, there was _nothing_ going on between him and Drew. At least he thought so. He wouldn't admit it but at lunch or breakfast he found himself staring at her. He would be surprised when he looked up and saw her glancing at him.

She smiled at the way he flipped his hair in the mirror. She was affecting how he acted towards his look. She knew that. They hung out so much that he had started to affect her too. She didn't steal. No, she was too higher up to steal. But she cracked more jokes with her brothers and sisters. She wasn't as mean anymore. At first her siblings had given her slightly weird and apprehensive looks but then they had warmed up to her. He looked up at her from the mirror and smile and subconsciously, her heart broke into a million pieces.

She didn't know that she was falling for him because as a child of Aphrodite you have to find true love on your own. "Come on. We should get started while the Venus cabin is in their cabin trying to fix theirselves." She had barely heard his words because she was mesmerized by his deep voice. She liked it, she decided. It was mature and completely contradicted his personality. They walked outside of the cabin and started to record Connor.

If Drew had payed more attention to her cabin than to Connor (she couldn't help herself around him) she would have seen the two figures crouched behind Piper's bed surveying the couple. Hermes looked at the retreating couple dumbfounded. "I can't believe that they're working together. It's almost like they're... you know... together..."

He explained this to Aphrodite. She nodded with a thoughtful look on her face. "I've never seen a couple develop this way."

Hermes' eyes bulged out. "Couple!-" Aphrodite clamped her hand over his mouth. He took it off. "What do you mean _couple_?"

Aphrodite rolled her eyes. "I know you're in denial Hermes. Now, don't you have another son to go look after?"

Hermes straightened up and snapped his fingers. "I got to hurry up and get to Travis before Drew and Connor get there."

He jumped through the nearest window and started running towards the strawberry fields.

"Hello fellow Olympians and demigods. My name is Connor Stoll as you already know me." He took the camera from Drew and pointed it to her. "This is a little segment that Drew likes to call-"

"Wait!" Drew nearly screamed, looking a little alarmed. "Are little kids going to watch this?"

Connor nodded. Drew blushed and brushed her hair behind her ears, a move Connor found was totally sexy. "Don't say the name then."

Connor looked at her with an amused look on his face but gave her back the camera and continued speaking. "Anyways... As you can see, I'm dressed in camouflage and so is Drew." Drew smiled into the camera then turned it back to Connor. He started walking while he talked.

"You may be wondering why Travis isn't helping me and why Drew is. That's because, lately Travis has been too pre-occupied to help me. You'll find out why in a second." They had arrived at the strawberry fields and were crouched behind a bush that was next to a Maple tree. Connor had chosen that tree because he knew that Travis went up here every morning. He never knew exactly why, until now.

He peered over the bush and smirked. He motioned for Drew to come closer. "Take a look at this." Drew pointed the camera over the bush and had to struggle to keep the shot still because she was laughing too much.

Travis was bent over some weeds, trying to pull them out but instead he fell backwards. Katie was kneeling beside him and giggled at his failed attempt to pull out the weeds. Travis frowned and pulled himself up with her help.

He fought the urge to roll his eyes. "Oh sure, laugh it up." Katie kept giggling and Travis didn't mind one bit because her laugh sounded like a melody to him. She looked up to find him staring at her with an amused look on his face and looked away. She cleared her throat and demonstrated how he was supposed to pull out the weeds.

"Like this?" Travis said. He did it the way she demonstrated but couldn't do it completely. He turned to her and shrugged. "I guess I just can't do it like you."

Katie's cheeks turned light pink. "Try again." Travis turned away from Katie. When he reached over to pull the weeds Katie touched the dirt and the weeds in Travis's hand came free. At first Travis looked incredulous but then he smiled knowingly. He leaned in close to Katie and said, "Thanks."

Before she could reply he got up and went to another weed patch to pull it out.

Drew put the camera on the floor and looked at Connor momentarily before they both burst out laughing hysterically. Travis and Katie couldn't hear them because they were too far away.

Hermes scowled from the bush he was hiding in with Demeter. It would've been way better and much more manly if Katie had let Travis try on his own. Hermes thought about that then reconsiderd. His son didn't seem to mind what Katie did so he was okay with it.

Demeter cocked her head from her spot in the bush. That had been the same way that she had fallen in love with Katie's dad. She hoped that Travis wasn't just playing around with Katie. If he was she would not hesitate to turn him into a Maple tree nymph. The only boy tree nymph in existence.

Connor and Drew finally stopped laughing. They looked at each other and wiped the tears from their eyes. After she finished laughing Drew fixed her hair and splashed some water from the canteen she had in her eyes to get rid of the pink in it. Drew grabbed the camera and they both got up and ran away from the bush. Connor took the camera this time and pointed it at Drew.

She cleared her throat and smiled. "A lot of you have been wondering where Piper and Jason disappear to in the afternoon for the past two days." At this Drew smiled devilishly. She began walking towards Thalia's pine tree. "Recent rumors and a lot of spying have provided an ideal place for where they might be heading to in the afternoon after classes."

When she reached the hill, she and Connor started climbing one of the trees that were almost as high as the pine tree. Connor had put the camera in a bag so that he wouldn't drop it while he was climbing. He took the camera out of the bag and zoomed in at the very top of the pine tree.

Jason steadied Piper on the second highest branch of Thalia's pine tree. He didn't want her to fall so he didn't put her on the very top. She smiled at him as he used the wind to pull away from her two feet. He was floating using the wind. He had asked Thalia if he could use her pine tree as a private spot where he and Piper could go. Thalia had smiled knowingly when he had said that they were just friends and she had allowed him to bring Piper to the top of the tree with him.

"Now," She said, "What was it that you needed to show me?"

He smiled at her and did a 360 flip in the air. Then he fell backwards and the wind caught him. He laid on it like he was on his bed. His arms were behind his head and he was soaking up the sun. Piper smiled. Jason seemed so confident when he was in his element. She liked that. Seeing him happy. She knew that if he ever ended up with another girl that she would gracefully back away. As long as he was happy she wouldn't care.

He opened his eyes to find her staring at him. He blushed a little and righted himself. "Sorry, I kind of forgot where I was for a moment."

She smirked at him. "I could tell."

"You want to try?" Jason asked. Piper raised her eyebrows and was about to politely decline the offer, she wasn't scared of heights, just nervous of the idea of her getting close to Jason again, but he pulled her off of the branch before she could react and she had no choice but to hold onto him tight. He adjusted the wind so that they were lying down on the wind just like he was before and smiled at Piper. A smile that made her heart melt. She smiled back and was afraid that she might fall for a second but then Jason's arms tightened around her and she decided to enjoy the moment because she might never get another moment like this. She hesistantly rested her head on his chest like she had done so many times before and marveled at the skyline of New York with him.

Connor smiled. "That was actually kind of sweet."

Drew nodded agreeing with him. At first she had felt a pang of jealousy when she had seen Piper with Jason, she had been looking around for something to throw at them (mostly Piper) but there wasn't really anything to throw. She had accidently lost her grip trying to look behind her for something to throw and Connor had grabbed her and pulled her up onto his branch. For a split second, they were an inch away from each other and that was enough to make Drew forgot all about Piper and Jason.

Besides, they looked _really_ good together. She decided that she would try to get them together later on.

Aphrodite was close to squeling right now. Jupiter had to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep her from giving away their position. They were sitting on a tree opposite of the hill. Since they were gods they didn't have to be close to see what was going on with Jason and Piper. When Jupiter pulled his mouth away from Aphrodite's mouth she was in tears.

Jupiter looked at her incredulously. "Why are you crying?"

Aphrodite sniffed. "Y-young p-people are s-so cute these d-days it makes m-me want to c-cry." Her voice started to get squeky towards the end so Jupiter decided to leave it at that.

He hurried up and got down from the tree because he needed to find out what was going on with Thalia and Leo. On his way to the volley ball court he changed his form to Zeus and got Artemis from the archery field. On their way back to the volley ball court they grabbed Hephaestus from the armory.

Connor and Drew climbed down from the tree they were on and sprinted away from the pine tree. Once in a while they ducked to make sure that neither Piper or Jason saw them. They stopped by the volley ball court to catch their breaths. "Who to do next?" Drew asked.

Connor, apparently, had done a great deal of research when it came to these couples, so he knew where almost all of them were. All of this was going to be used as black mail, or they could just show it to the camp...

Connor gazed across the volley ball court until his eyes rested on the Arts and Crafts pavilion. He saw a familiar head of jet black hair and lightning blue eyes and another head of brown hair and brown eyes. He smirked. "Let's go do arts and crafts."

Drew furrowed her eyebrows but looked in the direction that he was looking at. She smirked, _This'll be good._ They walked over to the Arts and Crafts pavilion and Connor concealed his camera. They hid behind the station of a bunch of satyrs who were creating _another_ statue of Pan. The satyrs left the station and they crouched below the statue.

Connor pulled out the camera and pointed it at Drew. "What you're about to see next is a couple in denial." Connor said.

Connor positioned the camera towards Thalia and Leo. They were the only ones left now. Thalia was painting a picture of someone, Drew and Connor couldn't tell who and Leo was making a bust of some one.

"So..." Leo started much to Thalia's dismay. "Who are you painting?"

Thalia sighed because she figured that she couldn't get away from him unless she answered him so she said, "I'm drawing a picture of Artemis."

Leo came over to inspect her picture. "That's cool. I drew the flying ship when I was little."

Thalia looked a little interested, "Really?"

Leo nodded. He had gone back to his clay and was currently working on a bust of Hephaestus. "Hera used to babysit me when I was little and she gave me some paper and crayons one day. I drew the ship."

Thalia stopped what she was doing and looked at Leo incredulously. "You're kidding." She looked slightly mad at the mention of Hera.

Leo smiled amused. "I'm not. I'm serious." He thought about it. "Then again, I always knew the Queen of the Gods was kind of crazy so..."

Thunder clapped from a far distance and startled Leo so much that he accidently threw his bust of Hepaestus in the air. As he fumbled for it, Thalia giggled a little.

"I've got to go Leo. I'll see you around." Thalia got up and left her unfinished protrait of Artemis at her station. She walked towards the arena, probably to practice against other kids.

Leo stared dumbfounded at her retreating figure. He wasn't checking her out, he was just too shocked at what she had done to actually move. She had giggled at him. An actual and sincere giggle. Maybe he was getting through to her after all.

Thalia went into the arena because she needed time to think. A lot of time to think. Since when does she giggle? Since when does Thalia Grace giggle? Leo was some how getting through to her. She ditched the arena and went to the woods. When she got to Zeus's fist she did something that she probably would have never done in a million years. She slowly willled herself to rise up into the air. She comanded herself to go up. She stopped at ten feet because she didn't want to go up to far but this was a start. She liked the air flowing around her body. It allowed her to think better than she had ever before.

Drew's jaw was hanging open at what she had just seen. Connor was snickering at her expression and videotaped it. Finally, she snapped out of her gaze and rolled her eyes at Connor. She pushed the camera out of her face and said, "Come on. We have more couples left to do."

Artemis sighed and smiled a bit. It was obvious that Thalia was confused about her feelings. Leo seemed like he was trying really hard to get to Thalia. She hoped that Leo would treat Thalia right if they ended up together. If he didn't then she would have no problem turning him into a jackalope like that other boy...

Zeus's parental defenses kicked up as soon as Thalia left Leo. He was about to go over to have a very violent 'talk' with Leo when Hepaestus saw what he was going to do and pulled him back. He dragged Zeus back to his cabin and away from Leo.

Connor and Drew walked away from the Arts and Crafts pavilion with their heads held up high and their shoulders squared. Campers who were walking around steered clear of them. They had developed a reputation of pranking people. One worst than Travis and Connor's reputation. They could think of worst pranks to do because Drew had some pretty interesting ideas of torture from when she was mean to everyone.

The fact that both of them were wearing camouflage and had devilish smiles on their faces did not help any one. They walked into the arena and went to the highest seats in the stands. They crouched down and Connor zoomed in on the center of the arena.

Clarisse and Chris were sparing in the center of the were alone because everyone had fanned out when Clarisse had come in. They didn't want to be the subject of her spear. Chris was one of the only ones that had the guts to walk up to Clarisse and try to spare with her. Clarisse took her training seriously and was brutal to almost anyone that tried to duel against her.

_Almost_ being the operative word. She had a soft spot for Chris. She would beat him up day after day but she wouldn't injure him like she did others. Usually, just one or two scratches. She was the dominant one in this relationship. She knew that and he did too. He didn't really mind it though. As long as she was happy, he was fine.

She ducked as his sword came at her in wide arc. Using the end of her spear she tripped him while he was leaning in for another strike. As he fell to the floor she pushed her foot into his back and disarmed him.

Chris smiled playfully. "Alright, alright. You win. As _always._"

Clarisse smirked triumphantly. "Is that a problem Chris?"

"Not one bit Claire." He called her that when they were alone because even though she didn't like all of that sappy crap, she still deserved something. Her cheeks colored a little at the name he called her. Even though he had used that nickname about five hundred times in the past two years that they had been dating she still hadn't adjusted to it fully.

He liked that. That they could always keep their relationship fresh. That there was still a lot they could look forward to in their relationship. It meant that their relationship would never get boring. Maybe one day he might actually win instead of falling to the ground in a crumpled heap. _Who knows?_

He didn't come to talk to her at her cabin and he didn't hold her hand in camp where everyone could see. He did that in their alone time because if her siblings saw them outside of their alone time, doing all of that, they would tease Clarisse and probably mark her as a softy.

_That_ would not go well. It would not go well with her _and_ him. He would stick up for her no matter what. If she was angry he would be there while she beat up whichever random person had made her mad. He had learned that her shouldn't fight her battles for her. She was tough, she could handle herself. Plus, Clarisse wasn't dumb. She knew which fights to pick and which ones to steer clear of.

He grabbed her hand and pulled himself up with her help. "I don't understand how you beat me all the time." He said as he picked up his sword.

"At first I thought it was just because you're Ares's daughter but now... I don't know. I can beat almost all of your siblings. It's just something about you that makes me lose each time." He smiled at her flushed face and interlaced his fingers with her.

She pulled away from him and said playfully, "Are you laughing at me?"

He thought she was being serious though. His smile slid off his face and he looked at her incredulously. He was so shocked that he didn't answer.

When it appeared that Chris wasn't going to answer, Clarisse assumed that he was actually laughing at her. She scoffed and shook her head. "I knew it. You're just like everyone else."

She started to walk away from him. She was thirty feet from his startled and stiff body when he finally snapped out of his gaze and ran to her. He grabbed her arm from behind her and pulled her towards him. He made her face him and when he looked into her eyes, he was shocked to see that she was crying.

When she started to pull away from him he held her tighter and wiped away her tears. "Claire, I'd never do that to you. You know that. I don't want to hurt you in any way possible. And I _certainly_ don't want to leave you. I didn't know that you were just kidding around. I'm sorry."

Clarisse looked at him because she wasn't sure whether he was lying or not. When he didn't look away from her she smiled and hugged him. Chris grinned and interlaced his fingers with hers again. They walked out of the arena but instead of going to another activity they went to have some 'alone time'.

"Huh." Ares said. "I guess your kid's alright Hermes."

Ares had turned himself into one of the straw dummies in the arena so that he could spy on Clarisse and Chris. Hermes was lying down on the floor next to Ares. He had transformed himself into a broad sword.

Hermes shrugged, which looked almost impossible to do since he was a sword at the moment. "What do you expect? Chris may have been steered wrong in the Titan War, but that was my fault not his. He's a good kid. You just saw that."

Ares nodded and was about to say something when Hermes said, "Shhh. Someone's coming."

Will Solace came into the arena with his cabin. "Alright you guys. Chiron says we need to practice sword fighting as well as archery so today were going to spend two hours practicing."

Hermes's and Ares's eyes bugged out as Sunny, an unexperienced eight year old from the Apollo cabin, picked up Hermes clumsily and unexpertly tried to hit Ares.

Will Solace came over to Sunny and shook his head. "Like this Sunny." He showed her how to swing the sword expertly. Ares spent the next two hours getting hit with Hermes in the gut. Both gods had to bite their tongues until ichor came out to stop theirselves from yelling or crying out.

Drew leaned back in her chair looking thoughtful. "We can't use that. They'll get mad at us. That was a personal moment."

Connor nodded then he smirked. "Come on. We have one more couple left."

Drew raised an eyebrow in curiousity. "Who?"

Connor fought the urge to roll his eyes. "Come on. What two people do we know who took four years to get together?"

Drew furrowed her eyebrows. "Are you talking about Silena and Beckendorf? 'Cause they didn't take four years to get together. Plus, I don't know if you're caught up in the news but do you know that they died last year?"

Connor sighed. "Come on Drew. I'll show you what I mean."

The two walked to the edge of their section of seats and used some rope to scale down the side of the arena. When they got down they found a bunch of campers staring at them.

Drew smiled innocently and said, "Hi!" She walked away calmly and Connor followed her. No one sat in the arena for an entire week. They all stood.

Connor walked up to his cabin with Drew in tow and said, "Stay here. I have to get something important for our next couple."

Drew had a confused look on her face but didn't say anything. Connor walked into his cabin and came out a moment later in a wet suit. He handed her a wet suit.

Drew raised an eyebrow at him. "Why do we need these?"

"You'll see." She took the suit that he was holding to her and stepped inside the empty Hermes cabin to put it on. He guarded the entrance to the cabin while she changed and then they both walked down to the lake.

They received very suspiscious looks as they walked around the perimeter of the lake. The Aphrodite cabin, who was canoeing at the time, sent several worrying glances to Drew and looked to Piper for advice. Piper, in turn, just sighed and said, "Just hope she's not planning anything on us."

This didn't reassure the Aphrodite cabin one bit so they kept one and a half eyes on Drew and Connor and the other left over half on their canoes.

Connor and Drew disregarded the Aphrodite cabin as they slipped oxygen tanks onto their backs.

Drew looked at Connor. "Why are we going into the lake?"

Connor smiled. "That's where our next couple is. The camera is waterproof so I'll be able to shoot them. We need to stay a good distance away from these two or else they'll spot us."

Drew looked at Connor like he was crazy. "_Our next couple is in the lake?_"

Connor merely smirked before he attached the snorkel on his mouth and jumped into the lake. Drew shrugged and jumped in with him. She decided that Connor was almost impossible.

As the water swallowed her up, Drew surveyed her area. She had never fallen in the canoe lake because she had never felt like going canoeing. She thought that it would just be dirty water and ugly fishes but it actually looked beautiful down here. For some reason, the water radiated with power. She wondered who could be down here.

A naiad perhaps?

Something tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around to find Connor gesturing her to follow him. She heard him through the radio in her helmet. "Come on. Stay low okay. Were going to have to stay completely still once we get there."

She followed him through some seaweed and sponge environments. Everywhere the water seemed to glow with power. It seemed like forever before they stopped. She hadn't thought that the lake was so deep and big. Then again she didn't know a lot of things. Maybe the reflection of the water made it look small. She'd read somewhere that water distorted image. (Yes she reads. She's not dumb you know. Despite all of the stereotypes for Aphrodite children.)

Connor hid behind another giant sponge habitat. He gestured to something a couple feet away from them and he started filming. She looked in the direction that he had gestured to and caught her breath. She couldn't believe her eyes. For a couple minutes she thought she was hallucinating.

Right there at the bottom of the lake, was a giant air-filled bubble, about six feet in diameter. It was glowing more than all of the other objects in the lake. She figured that that was where the power was coming from. Suddenly there was movement in the bubble. She squinted her eyes and guess what she saw?

Percy Jackson was at peace in his bubble. He had been sleeping for almost an hour now. Usually he hated sleeping during the day, but he had a very specific and good reason why he was doing it now. He opened his eyes momentarily. He thought he felt a disturbance from the water but he hadn't felt the disturbance since it had first happened so he figured that it was nothing.

He was about to go back to sleep when something moved on his chest. He looked down and smiled at the sleeping figure on his chest. He brushed some of the hair that was covering Annabeth's face out of the way. She looked so peaceful in her sleep that he didn't want to wake her up.

It turned out that he didn't have to. She woke up about a minute later and smiled up at him. His smile broadened and he leaned down to kiss her forehead. She snuggled up to him and watched the fish swimming by their bubble.

Annabeth liked that she could spend time with Percy like this. She had been so busy designing Olympus so much that she had barely had enough time for him. She had agreed to take a break and stop designing this morning when he had insisted to her over and over that she should. So here she was wasting an entire day that she could be using to finish designs.

He was such a good boyfriend.

Percy took her fingers in his and started playing with them. He didn't have to speak to her for her to know how he felt. They had unspoken communication. It came especially handy during quests when they needed to formulate a battle plan but the enemy was right in front of them.

He felt especially good right now because he was in his element. The water revived him. He could tell he was glowing from being in the water so much. Annabeth had been in so much contact with him because she had been sleeping on him that she had started glowing also.

They laid there in total peace. Suddenly, one of the fish that were passing by sensed that the two figures in the bubble were awake. It hurriedly swimmed up to the bubble and said telepathically, "Hello, my lord." Annabeth was startled a little because she realized that she could understand the fish.

Percy nodded in respect to the fish.

Annabeth turned to Percy. "I can understand it."

Percy raised his eyebrows, "That's probably because you've been so close to me today." Annabeth nodded.

Then, to both Percy's and Annabeth's surprise the fish turned to Annabeth and said, "Good afternoon, milady."

It bowed in respect to Annabeth and then swam off. Percy's mouth was hanging open. "Wow."

Annabeth's response wasn't any different. "I guess they respect you now because you're my girlfriend or my dad had something to do with this."

Annabeth nodded. She laid back down on Percy's chest and watched the fish swim around their bubble. Once in a while a fish would come up and say hello to them or keep them entertained.

Poseidon and Athena were hidden behind a giant reef twenty feet away from the bubble.

"See?" Poseidon said, a smirk on his face. "My son loves your daughter no doubt. Just look at the way he treats her."

Athena glared at him a little but when she looked at the bubble, Percy was stroking Annabeth's hair with one hand and had the other hand wrapped around her waist. Annabeth smiled as they watched a fish do a flip in the water and then an entire group of fish act out a scene from a movie.

Athena sighed in defeat. Poseidon had made an air bubble for her because she had insisted on coming down here with him to see what her daughter was doing with the son of Poseidon. This was just one in the many time's that Percy and Annabeth had come down here and since she couldn't look into Poseidon's realm she had to drag him down here with her. If she was going down he was going down with her.

Athena had almost no idea why Annabeth liked the son of Poseidon so much. She had only come up with one conclusion. They were exact opposites. He was rash and acted on impulse. He wasn't that smart but could be very clever sometimes.

She wasn't as rash as he was and she didn't act on impulse. She planned most of the things that she had to do and was very intelligent.

"Fine." Athena said. The word sounded sour in her mouth. "But if he ever does anything to hurt her or if he doesn't take her thoughts into consideration then I will not hesitate to turn him into a dolphin and send him to you. That's exactly what Dionysus intended to do five years ago anyways."

With that, she manuevered her bubble and shot up to the top of the lake. From there, she swam to the shore of the lake.

"Wow. That's harsh."

Poseidon jumped up at the sound. He turned around to see the rest of the Olympians wearing wet suits and snorkels and looking at Percy's and Annabeth's direction.

The comment from before had come from Ares. "And I thought I was harsh."

Poseidon shrugged and turned back to the couple. "Athena has a wide imagination."

Hades scoffed. "We all saw that when we saw her turn Medusa into a gorgon."

Everyone shivered while Poseidon grimaced remembering his lover.

Zeus turned to Dionysus. "You were going to turn him into a dolphin?"

Dionysus sighed at the glare that Poseidon was giving him. "It's not really a long story but I don't feel like explaining."

Hera looked at the couple. "They seem really happy."

Aphrodite sighed dreamily. "Isn't it wonderful. You know they have the most tragic love story since Paris and Helen."

Hermes and Apollo sighed. "Here we go again."

Aphrodite glared at them momentarily and then continued looking at Percy and Annabeth. Hephaestus shrugged. "At least Athena didn't try to beat up your boy." He glanced at Zeus, who rolled his eyes.

Hermes smirked. "I wouldn't worry about Zeus. Artemis is probably going to turn Leo into a jackalope if he does a single thing to hurt our dear baby sister."

Artemis frowned. "_Exactly._" Hephaestus sighed but couldn't say anything because Artemis was giving him 'the look'.

"I wouldn't smile so much Hermes." Demeter said. "If your son does anything to my daughter then I'll turn him into the only boy tree nymph in existence."

Hermes grimaced and turned to Ares and Aphrodite to see if they were going to say anything about Connor and Chris.

Ares shrugged. "I don't fight my kids' battles."

Aphrodite just smiled at him mysteriously. "Oh, I won't do anything."

Drew and Connor were in wonder and awe at what they were seeing. _This is the ultimate dating spot_, Drew thought. Connor's mouth would've gone slack minutes ago if he hadn't remembered that he was underwater. He snapped out of his gaze and put the camera away.

"Come on Drew." They swam away from the reef they were hiding behind and emerged from the lake. They went back to their seperate cabins and took off their wet suits. Drew went to the Hermes cabin where Connor was already uploading the video and editing it into a movie. "This is going to be great." Drew said.

Connor nodded. They heard the conch shell in the distance, signaling that it was dinner time. "Let's go." Drew said.

Connor got up to go but he moved a little too fast and bumped into Drew. Drew started to stumble so she grabbed Connor's shirt. She fell over on the floor and Connor tumbled down on her.

"Ow." Connor opened his eyes and saw that his face was two inches away from Drew's. He swallowed nervously but he didn't back away. Drew's eyes were wide because she was surprised at how close she was to Connor. She remembered what her father told her when she was little, how sometimes people fall in love really fast and fall for someone hard. She figured that that was what was happening now.

Connor leaned down towards Drew. They were a centimeter away from each other when they heard Travis's voice from outside, "No. I'm just going to get something from my cabin."

They both stood up abruptly and walked out of the cabin. On the way out they ran into Travis, who had a confused look on his face.

* * *

><p><strong>So close...<strong>

**Erudite19**


	8. Stay Forever

**And so… we go back to Percabeth. This is an idea I had off the top of my head and I just had to write it.**

* * *

><p>Percy Jackson sat at his booth at the restaurant for twenty minutes. He was twenty-seven and was waiting for Annabeth to show up to their date.<p>

I know what you're thinking, _Date? You mean you haven't proposed yet?_

Well, there was a very specific reason for the little black box in his jacket pocket that made him get all jittery and fueled up his ADHD.

Where was Annabeth? Was she stuck in traffic? Was she going to break up with him right before he proposed to her? That would be horrible and downright heart breaking. Maybe that was it. She was fed up that after almost eleven years of being together, he still hadn't proposed.

But… that couldn't be it. He knew Annabeth. She wouldn't do something like that.

Hades sighed. He was back at his domain and was surveying the living via invisible Iris message, looking for anyone that was close to death. Suddenly, he felt a strong aura emanating off of an apartment building near a restaurant that he usually took Persephone to.

He scaled the apartment up and down looking for the point that had the most powerful aura. He willed his Iris message to move forward and faze through the wall. He emerged in what he later on recognized as a bathroom.

He was confused at first because he didn't see any signs of death but when he turned his Iris message around to look at the scene the confused look on his face wiped off and he sighed. There, lying in a bathtub facedown and obviously knocked out, was a girl. She was running out of air fast. The bathtub was filled to the top and had bubble soap in it.

The girl was wrapped up in a towel and had her sandals on her feet so Hades could only assume that she had been coming out of the bathtub and was in such a hurry that she slipped and hit her head on something. Then she got knocked out and accidently landed in the bathtub.

Normally Hades would just past this case onto Persephone so that she could help guide this girl's soul to the Underworld but for some reason he hesitated. He looked closely at the girl. She was familiar. He didn't know where he had seen her before but he knew he had.

Then he noticed an unmistakable feature that she had; blonde hair.

Percy checked his watch impatiently. Where could she be? Was she sick? Was she too busy to be bothered with him? He knew that she was just finishing school to get her master's degree. Was she studying for a quiz and she just forgot about their date?

Then again, Annabeth had excellent memory. She wouldn't just forget something like this. He got out of the restaurant, on his way asking one of the waiters to hold his spot, and took out his cell phone.

He dialed Annabeth's number four times but each time all he got was her voice mail. He went back to his booth and sat down, wondering again where she could be.

Hades was fighting an internal battle. Usually he wouldn't care if the demigod of another Olympian was dying. That was just an extra person to add to his kingdom. Another person that would make him more and more powerful.

Why should he care so much that the daughter of Athena was drowning considerably and would be dead in a matter of minutes if someone didn't do something? He realized that he was feeling guilt. Guilt for what? He was an all powerful god. One of the Olympians. He had a grand throne on Olympus and-

That was it. He had a throne on Olympus. The only reason he had a throne on Olympus was because of Percy Jackson. And right now… Percy Jackson's girlfriend could be joining his realm any time soon. He owed the house of Poseidon a lot because of Jackson. Maybe it was time to pay back his debt.

He sighed and brought out his Helm of Darkness. He glanced at Persephone to see her face crestfallen and her head hanging low. He took her hand and kissed it much to her surprise. "Do not worry my dear. I don't have another mortal lover. I simply have some business to deal with in the mortal world. I'll be back soon."

After seeing a smile break out on Persephone's face, he put on his Helm and disappeared from his realm. He appeared in the same restaurant that Percy was in, dressed like one of New York's Elite.

He slid into a booth on the opposite wall that Percy was sitting on. He watched the son of Poseidon shake his legs and tap his hands nervously and decided that a; he was doing a good thing and that b; Percy was a nervous wreck when it came to Annabeth.

A waiter passed by and offered him a martini. He said no for now but knew that when he came back he was going to order a good round of drinks to help him forget about what he was just about to do. He slipped on his helm and disappeared into the shadows.

He had to hurry up because he could feel more and more of Annabeth's energy draining. The daughter of Athena was strong, that was clearly obvious, but she wouldn't last for long.

When he finally got to Percy's table he willed the shadows to reach out to Percy. He walked up to Percy's ear and whispered, _"Go to her."_ He smiled a little when Percy tensed and jumped in his seat.

Percy was creeped out right now. One second he was wondering where Annabeth could be and the next; he heard voices telling him to go to her. He started pondering whether this was a joke or not. He had heard voices in his dream telling from the Titan Lord before but that was an entirely different thing. Besides, he recognized this voice. He could remember and old distant memory of someone who sounded just like that.

Was it Nico? No, that couldn't be it. Nico's voice was deep but not that deep. He tensed because he heard the voice again. He was about to ignore it but he suddenly had a bad feeling spreading all over his body. A growing sense of dread.

He had learned to trust his instincts awhile ago so in a split second, impulsive decision-one that might get him in trouble with Annabeth later- he walked out of the restaurant without bothering to tell the waiter to save his seat and hitched the nearest taxi to Annabeth's apartment.

As he stepped out of the taxi and walked to the nearest elevator, the dread just increased. He grew extremely anxious while he was on the elevator. Why did Annabeth have to live on the seventh floor?

When the elevator door opened he sped walk to her apartment number. He knocked on the door several times and tried to call her again but nothing happened. Finally he sighed and put his phone back in his pocket. When he took his hand out of his pocket something fell out. He picked up what seemed to be a set of keys and then almost slapped himself silly when he realized that one of the keys were Annabeth's apartment key.

He opened the door and looked around. Annabeth's car keys were still here so she wasn't anywhere in her car. He found her phone right next to the keys and checked her phone records. All his calls were on there. He looked at the top of the screen of the phone saw that the phone volume was on seven.

Why didn't she pick up? Was she just not here? He checked around the apartment but he found no signs that she had left. The thousand page college books that she had were closed on her desk. Her room wasn't a mess. He looked over at the bed to find that the outfit she was going to wear on their date was laid there. He smiled because he could almost imagine her in it. He turned around and started walking out of the room.

He was about to leave the apartment and go search for her somewhere else but he hesitated at the bathroom door. The dread that had been growing was at its peak here. He licked his lips and slowly opened the door. He took a step in the bathroom and almost fainted at the scene that he saw.

What happened next was a blur of his memory. He remembered grabbing her cold, limp body out of the bathtub and rushing her to her bedroom with the idea that he could lay her on her bed and perform CPR. He was about to set her on her bed when he remembered what she had told him so many years ago when she was helping him study for a marine biology course; you needed a flat surface to perform CPR.

He laid her on the carpet in her room and performed CPR. After doing CPR for thirty minutes, he was starting to lose hope. He picked up her limp hand and was about to send a prayer to Hades when all of a sudden she started coughing and choking on water. He adjusted her so that she could cough up all the water.

When she finally gained her senses and realized what had happened she looked up at an almost elated Percy. At that very moment she didn't care if she was just wearing her towels and sandals or that her boyfriend was in her bedroom with her, she started crying miserably because she could have been dead at any moment if it hadn't been for Percy.

He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight. When she continued to cry he started to whisper comforting words to her. "It's alright. I'm here and I'll never leave."

When her crying had gone down considerably and she was just sniffling he felt a presence in the room. He looked up and was surprised to see Hades there. He was about to get up and bow to Hades when the god raised his hand. Hades looked to Annabeth and then nodded at Percy. Percy was confused for a second but then understood exactly what had happened. He held onto Annabeth and whispered soothing words to her.

He gave Hades a giant offering later that week.

True to his words, Percy never did leave. And so you can imagine that fifty years later when his hair had nearly turned completely gray and they had been married and had three children that they were still together.

One night, as they climbed into bed, the same feeling that he had had fifty years ago came again. Except this time it didn't feel as bad as before. He cuddled up to her and she smiled at him and they fell asleep. In the morning, he found her dead.

They made her shroud and burned her three days later. Percy tried to say a few words but it was hard to speak when he was crying. Over the next couple of days, his children grew worried for him. He was still eating and doing his regular exercise but he was no longer the joke cracking, laid back father that they knew. He had gone into a depressed mood after Annabeth's death and he barely talked. He just stared off into space.

Athena watched all of this in interest and silently grieved over her daughter's death. In the end, she decided that Percy Jackson was the best person that her daughter could end up with.

A month later the two oldest children, Lily and Sophia, came to visit their dad and tell him goodbye before they went home to their husbands and children. They weren't as shocked when they saw his limp and cold body lying on the couch without a pulse. He was burned and his ashes were buried next to hers.

Poseidon grieved over his son's death for several days and went so far as too not show up for the meeting on the Winter Solstice. No one bothered him. Not even Amphitrite or Trident.

Aphrodite smiled sadly. Percy and Annabeth's story had really been more tragic than Paris and Helen's. She knew the two would have eternal love.

Percy Jackson opened his eyes and found that he was in a white room. He looked down to notice that he was wearing all white. But… something else was different. He felt stronger. He shouldn't feel this strong for a seventy-seven year old. Then he noticed the mirror in front of him and gasped at his appearance. He was seventeen again (bad pun for those of you who know the movie).

Suddenly the white room disappeared and he was staring at the gates to Elysium. At first he had no idea what he was doing at Elysium in his teenage form but then he realized that he was dead. His Uncle Hades materialized on his right and nodded in respect to Percy. Percy, in turn, bowed to him.

Hades put his right hand on the golden gates and pushed them open. Before Percy could take a step forward he heard three words, "Go to her."

He turned to face Hades but found that his Uncle had disappeared. He walked past the gates and they closed behind him. In front of him, dozens of younger demigods ran around the streets and played with each other. The older ones could be seen hollering and whooping at various night clubs.

He noticed that the streets were labeled by time period that you died so he started walking until he could find the two thousands. On the way there several demigods from different time periods stopped what they were doing to look up at him.

"That's Percy Jackson."

"One of the heroes of Olympus."

"The one who was married to Annabeth Chase."

"Yeah, the great architect. I heard she passed by here a month ago. Just died."

Percy smiled but kept walking. He remembered what Hades had told him when he had heard Annabeth's name. She had to be there. He walked up the street that had his time period and several demigods that had already died-almost the entire population of demigods that helped out during the Titan and Earth Wars-stopped what they were doing and said hi to him or waved.

He met up with Beckendorf and they talked for awhile before he had to leave. Finally he stopped at the last house on the block. Before he could even knock on the door, it opened and he was staring face to face with a seventeen year old with black hair, blue eyes, and freckles. A smile broke out on both of their faces and they simultaneously hugged each other.

Thalia pulled away from him and said, "It took you long enough to get here. Everyone else died like two or three years ago and they're all inside. Oh, and by the way, you might want to talk to your wife. She's sleeping right now because it's like one in the morning but you can talk to her later."

At this statement Thalia stepped aside and he walked inside. It seemed pretty empty inside until Thalia yelled, "Hey everybody, Percy finally died!"

Suddenly several people rushed out of corridors and hallways to greet Percy. Nico, Gwen, Clarisse, Chris, Connor, Katie, Dakota, Jason, Bobby, Reyna, Piper, Leo, Will, and Travis.

They sat down and talked for two hours, then when it was about three in the morning, they all went to bed.

Thalia brought him to Annabeth's room and said goodnight. He slowly opened the door and a smile erupted on his face when he saw her sleeping on her bed (and not drowning in a bathtub). He decided to sleep on a nearby chair that he found and put near the bed. If Annabeth woke up with someone in the same bed as her-even if she knew them-it would not be good.

He woke up early in the morning when the sun shone through the window-if the Underworld even had a sun-to find that Annabeth hadn't even woken up yet. He was anxious about seeing her after a month but he didn't go away.

She was in her seventeen year old form also. He decided that after so many years with her, she still looked beautiful.

He caught his breath because she shifted in her sleep and her eyes fluttered open. She hadn't seen him yet but it was just a matter of time.

Her shoulders tensed and she sat up. He could see what could be a smile forming on her lips and when she turned to look at him her smile exploded into a broad grin. He smiled back at her because he was relieved at her response towards him.

She practically ran off of the bed and engulfed him in a giant hug. He hugged back and enjoyed feeling her in his arms once again.

* * *

><p><strong>Please review. I really want to know what you think about this.<strong>

**Erudite19**


	9. Deranged House Flies

Utter silence echoed through the living room. The pictures on the wall gazed out silently as they watched the event going on. The deranged mosquito-that had been in the house for days and Travis couldn't seem to get rid of it-kept on banging its head on the window sill to try to get out (even though the window was open).

Two sets of eyes stared at each other menacingly. Travis Stoll was sitting on the couch in the living room and little eight year old Bobby Stoll (Yes, a girl not a boy. Bobby isn't neccassrily a boy's name) sat on the opposite couch from him. It was hard keeping their eyes still because Travis had ADHD and Bobby had inherited that from him and Katie.

Bobby pouted, "Pleeeeeease?"

"No."

"Why not daddy?"

"No."

"That's not a good answer."

"So?"

"But I asked you nicely. Besides, I want it."

"I want it to. I haven't eaten it in a long time."

"But I never tasted it before."

Travis looked at his daughter disbelieving. "You ate some yesterday."

"So?"

"So... that's not a good answer." Travis said.

Bobby grinned innocently. "So?"

Travis frowned. How do you argue with a kid that uses the same tactics as you? They were doing a staring contest to win the thing they had been arguing for. So far it had gone on for one minute. (_That long? Note the sarcasm in my writing._) If he didn't win and Bobby didn't win then the ADHD would surely win.

Suddenly Bobby got off the couch she was sitting on-while keeping eye contact with her dad- and strolled over to his couch. She stopped in front of him and raised her finger in front of his eyes.

"Hey that's cheating!" Travis whined. He was having a hard time keeping his eyes on Bobby's. After doing this for awhile Bobby gave up and plopped onto the couch next to Travis. The staring contest continued.

Five minutes later, both eyes were at the brink of blinking. Both Travis and Bobby's eyes looked like they were going to shut at any second. Their facial expressions could have rivaled any one from Asia.

Bobby knew she would lose. She had never won a staring contest before. She prayed to Hermes that she would win but she couldn't remember the last time that the god had answered her when she was in a contest. _Probably last week?_

She used her peripheral vision to look around the living room so she could get her mind off the contest. Suddenly she saw what could possibly help her win the contest. _Maybe grandpa was being generous this month._ The stupid deranged fly that had been giving her dad a hard time for the last month was knocking it's head on the window sill. It probably didn't have any brain cells. She tried extremely hard to keep a smirk off her face so her dad wouldn't know what she was up to.

She put a hand behind her back and when her dad raised an eyebrow she acted like she was scratching her back. The window was open and showed the small garden that her mom had planted so many years ago. She concentrated on her Demeter poweres-which took a lot of energy for an eight year old- and made a vine come up through the window. At seeing the vine, the fly stopped hitting it's head on the window sill and flew the opposite way.

She willed the vine to follow the fly until it was five feet away from her dad. The fly kept flying towards the pair on the couch while she willed the vine to go back under ground. When the fly was one and a half feet away from them her father's shoulder tensed. As soon as the fly got near the two he turned towards his target and clapped his hands in the air.

When he opened his hands a triumphant smile grew on his face and he shouted quite childishly, "Yeah sucker! That's right you stupid, deranged fly! Now who's getting away from who? Not _You!_ Should've went to a a mental asylum when you had the chance! Could've been in a nice little strait-jacket!"

Bobby looked up at her dad in amusement because it was always funny to see what he would do when he won. After a minute of her dad's little victory dance she cleared her throat and his elated smile dropped off his face.

He had lost all because of a stupid deranged fly. That was a new low.

"Fine." Travis sighed. "Here." He handed her the chocolate bar that he had recently bought from the store to her out stretched hands. She smiled and jumped off the couch after she marveled at the chocolate bar.

"Thank you daddy!" She would've hugged him but she was barely three feet and a half so she hugged one of his legs and ran into the kitchen screaming, "Mommy! Mommy! Look what I tricked daddy out of!"

Travis stared at the little retreating form disbelievingly.

"Ha!" Hermes said. "You sir, owe me three drachmas." He and several other gods and goddesses were disguised as plants in Katie's gargen. Apollo, who wanted to be over the top, had disguised himself as a sunflower.

Dionysus sighed and used his roots to give Hermes the money. "It's not like I knew she could control vines."

Demeter smirked as she took the money from Hermes' hands (leaves). "She's my grandaughter and she used _my_ vine to help her so the money goes to me."

Hermes glared at her momentarily before flashing out. Demeter looked at Dionysus. "The only vines my children can't control are grape vines." Then she flashed out.

Apollo turned to Dionysus. "Look on the bright side, you've seen how cool little kids can be. I bet she'd love her great uncle."

Dionysus just rolled his eyes at Apollo and flashed out leaving a very confused god of the sun.

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><p><strong>Erudite19<strong>


	10. The Little Baron

Skylar Grace struggled to keep herself floating against the ceiling. She was lying against the ceiling in a horizontal position with her arms spread out. She concentrated a little more so that she wasn't bouncing up and down in the air. It was hard to master her powers at the age of six.

Her plan was simple and possibly crazy, when her dad came home from work and stepped through the door she was going to plummit to the floor and attack him. That would be her April Fools prank for him. She had already scared her mom earlier that morning.

The only reason she had been able to come up with this prank is because once, when she and her cousin's had had a sleepover, their Uncle Percy had told them all about their parent's adventures about the wars or about Camp Half-Blood. She had learned a lot about insane ideas from him. Then her Uncle Travis and Connor had taught her all about pranks.

"Skylar! Skylar! Skylar where are you?" She could hear her mom's voice echoing through the house. Skylar knew that it was only a matter of time till her mom found her. She didn't know how but her mom always knew the right place to look for her. Like right now.

Piper Grace looked up at the ceiling towards her daughter. She wasn't mad that Skylar was up there, that had happened so many times before that she could care less now. What she was concerned about was _why_ Skylar was up there.

"Skylar... what are you doing on the ceiling?"

Skylar smiled mischeviously. "I'm gonna prank daddy."

Usually Piper wouldn't allow that but she remembered how much Jason had laughed at her when Skylar had pranked her and she decided that one little measly prank wouldn't hurt.

Piper heard a door slam outside and watched as Jason walked up to the front door. She smiled devilishly and went outside to greet her husband. After talking to him briefly about his day at work she went inside and Jason followed him.

Skylar took a deep breath and watched as her father walked across the living room. As soon as he was in a three feet diameter (she had learned that word from her cousin Sophia) of the kitchen door she was going to initiate (she had learned that word from Sophia's sister Lily) her plan.

Jason's shoulder tensed momentarily as he walked into the living room. He glanced up out of the corner of his eyes to see his daughter floating against the ceiling. _What was she doing up there? Was she going to prank him? That had to be it._

He decided to act like he hadn't seen her and go through with the prank because Skylar would be happy if he did. He glanced at his wife to see that she had seen him looking at Skylar. Piper smiled at him and he could see that she was hoping that he would go through with the prank.

He sighed. _Little kids were never easy to take care of._ Hewalked towards the kitchen. He could practically feel Skylar's grin enlarging.

Ten feet...seven feet...four feet...two feet...

"The little Baron lives!" Could be heard being shouted from Skylar's mouth as she plummeted to the ground. Jason looked up and feigned surprise as his daughter landed on his chest and drove him to the floor.

"Oh no! I'm being attacked by martians from the god Mars! Piper help! They're tiny deadly little things! Run! Run before you get attacked too!"

By this time Skylar was sitting on top of her dad's chest and laughing hysterically. "Daddy! It's only me!" Then she pouted. "Hey! I'm not tiny! Or a martian!"

Jason pouted and sat up, rearranging Skylar on his lap so that she couldn't fall. Piper sat next to Jason and smiled at him knowingly when Skylar wasn't looking. "You tricked me didn't you? That was a cruel trick Skylar."

Skylar looked up at her dad in surprise. "I'm sorry... I didn't-" She was interrupted because her mom picked her up and started tickling her. When she tried to use her powers to float away her dad grabbed her out of the air and continued the tickling fit.

* * *

><p><strong>Last chapter until next time. I'll be back next weekend with a new chapter.<strong>

**Erudite19**


	11. The Thing About Thaleo

Leo plumped down on the bean bag in the Poseidon cabin. He and some of the older counselors (that were boys) had been hanging out in there for the past couple of months. Percy didn't mind them hanging out in the cabin because it was one of the only cabins where they could all hang out alone. The Zeus cabin was too big and lonely and the Hades cabin was just too dark for their liking.

They hang out twice a week so that people wouldn't question them about what they did in the Poseidon cabin. Leo was confused when an emergency meeting was called and they were meeting for the third time that week.

He looked up and was kind of startled when all eyes were on him.

"Uhh... Why are you guys looking at me like that?"

Jason sighed and patted Leo's shoulder. "Just know that were here for you buddy."

All of the boys in the room nodded in support. Leo must have had a really confused look on his face because Percy sighed and shook his head. "He doesn't even know!"

"It's alright Brother Jackson." Connor patted Percy's back then turned to his brother. "Brother Stoll, could you lead this meeting? It seems that Brother Jackson is too distraught to do that."

Travis nodded and turned his attention to the crowd. All the boys in the room besides Leo bowed their heads along with Travis. "Dearly beloved fraternity brothers of Camp Half-Blood, we are gathered here today for the death of Leo Valdez. A great friend. A flame head. A-"

"Wait a minute!" Leo yelled. "What's going on here? I'm not dead you guys. I'm right here."

Nico sighed. "You'll probably be dead sooner or later."

Leo raised an eyebrow at the dark clothed son of Hades. "What are you talking about? I feel perfectly fine. Is someone trying to kill me? Are you guys going to kill me? Is this about the corny jokes I crack 'cause I can lighten up on them-"

"Calm down Leo." Chris said. "That's not what this is about."

Percy nodded. "Leo... do you like any certain people in camp?"

Leo looked at Percy incredulously and then blushed. "I...uh...um...Why are you even asking me this?"

"You know..." Percy continued. "Any certain girls with black hair... maybe blue eyes... and freckles... one that might be related to Jason and can beat up the Stoll brothers in less than five seconds if they prank her?"

The Stolls grimaced remembering the previous prank they had pulled on Thalia and the outcome of it. Several people stifled their laughter and waited for Leo to continue.

Leo's face was completely flushed now. He swallowed tightly. "No... I-why are you guys looking at me like I'm lying...? Okay, fine! I may like... Th-Th-"

Jason hit him on the back of his head. "Thalia!" He had a dreamy expression on his face. Almost all of the boys groaned or shook their heads.

Leo scowled. "What's this meeting about any ways? What's going on? I thought you guys were supposed to be supportive if I like someone? What-"

"Calm down Leo." Chris repeated. "We understand that you like Thalia and we're-" He gestured to the entire group of boys forming the circle on the floor. "Okay with that. Including Jason." Jason nodded in response to that.

"But..." Percy continued. "There are certain people who might not be okay with that."

Thunder sounded outside and everyone winced.

"My point is proven." Percy shook his head.

Leo knit his eyebrows but then widened his eyes in realization. "Are you talking about the gods? Why wouldn't they be okay with that? I mean maybe Zeus or Artemis might be mad but..."

"That's the thing." Will said. "If you and Thalia _do_ end up together by some miracle-because who knows where your relationship is going with her, probably the Aphrodite cabin-"

"I'll ask Piper later." Jason said. His cheeks flushed slightly at her thought and the other boys smiled at him knowingly.

"If you do end up together," Will continued. "And it doesn't work out and _you_ dump her do you know how many gods would come after you?"

Nico nodded along with Will. "Not gods in general but _Olympian_ gods. You don't mess with a Princess of the sky. Especially when her dad is the ruler of the sky and _probably_ the most powerful of the gods."

Leo paled considerably but the boys still continued.

Bobby nodded. (Not Travis' daughter. The Bobby that was mentioned at the end of the Lost Hero as one of Jason's friends.) "Thalia has spent time with some of her godly brothers and sisters and I'm sure that some of them would like to castrate you if you broke her heart."

Percy nodded with a serious look on his face. "No more family jewels." If possible Leo paled even more.

Travis continued with a grimace on his face. "Worst of all, there's an entire _list_ of Olympians that would probably hurt you."

Jason noticed Leo's face. "That's only _if_ you two end up together and you break her heart and don't try to fix it."

Percy cleared his throat and took a small piece of paper out of his pocket that had the word List on it. Leo sighed because the list seemed kind of small but then Percy started to open it up and soon it was the size of the blue-print he had used to construct the Argo II. He almost fainted when he saw that.

"The first person," Percy started. "That would hear about it, of course, would be Zeus. Since he's pretty powerful and everything and has a considerable amount of 'pets' who knows who he'll send after you. I'm sure not even my dad or Hades know."

Nico scowled. "Plus you'll have to meet her dad face to face if you ever date her. That'll be even worse. Ask Percy, he knows exactly what I'm talking about. He met Annabeth's dad through Iris message yesterday. He's just lucky it was through Iris message."

The son of Poseidon shivered and frowned. "That meeting was worse than any monsters that I've ever face combined."

Travis nodded in sympathy to Percy. "I hear you dude. I met Katie's dad once-long story- it was _not_ good. For a gardener, her dad had a _really_ tough grip. Practiced some wrestling moves on me. I now know how to put someone in a choke hold. I'm pretty sure Zeus knows a thing or two also."

Leo's mouth gaped open. "Second on the list," Percy continued, "Is Artemis. Since Thalia was with Artemis for two years and a half Artemis probably won't hesistate to turn you into a jackalope."

Several people looked at Percy a little scared. "A _jackalope?_" Leo managed to choke out. It came out three octave notes higher than his regular deep voice.

"You're kidding right?" Jason asked a little alarmed. When Percy looked at him with a downright serious face he turned to Leo with a concerned look on his face.

Will swallowed nervously. "I won't even _look_ at those girls the next time they come here."

Percy sighed. "Next on the list is Athena."

Travis looked confused. "Whay would Athena do anything?"

"Because," Percy replied. "If it wasn't for Thalia and some other person that I won't mention Annabeth wouldn't even be here today. Plus Thalia's her sister so..."

Connor shook his head. "Who knows what Athena will come up with. The Gorgon sisters were pretty disgusting when I saw them in the war. Athena has a very imaginative mind, I'll give her that."

Everyone looked at Leo and got a good look at his face because they might not get to see it the way it is right now in the future.

"Then it's Ares. He doesn't fight his children's fights but he's taken a favor to Thalia and would probably turn you into a prarie dog and run you over with his motorcycle. Let me just say that I've seen his motor cycle and I even rode it before, it is the size of a baby elephant." Percy said.

Several people stared at him confused. "I've gotten a lot of threats from him before."

Suddenly they heard a thud! sound and turned from Percy. Leo had fainted on the floor.

"Aww." Percy said. "I didn't get to finish reading the list."

Connor shrugged. "We'll finish it at next weeks meeting. Let's get him to the infirmary for now."

They heard the conch shell sound and knew that it was time for dinner. After struggling for awhile everyone picked up Leo and started to carry him to the big house to the infirmary. While they passed the dining pavilion everyone stared at them with a confused look on their faces.

Chiron stopped the group. "Should I ask why Mr. Valdez seems to be knocked out?"

They all seemed to consider the question for awhile. However, when Percy glanced at Thalia and saw the confused look on her face he decided that it was probably better if they didn't tell the entire camp that Leo liked Thalia right in front of her. Instead he said, "It's probably better if you don't know."

Chiron raised an eyebrow but sent them off any ways. Everyone resumed their conversations but at the Ares table one of the kids was thinking about running over a spanish speaking prairie dog over with a motorcycle.

At the Hermes table, a girl with silver eyes and auburn hair, was thinking about turning a certain son of Hephaestus into a jackalope. The boy sitting next to her, he had blue eyes and black hair, was thinking about how Leo would look with his eyebrows singed off.

A girl at the Athena table was contemplating a new look for a new mythical beast that she was going to create.

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><p><strong>Poor Leo. I hope he didn't get a heart attack. Review.<strong>

**Erudite19**


	12. Bullies in High School

Clarisse la Rue walked towards the double doors of her school. Just twenty more steps and she could make it through the doors and wouldn't have to deal with that stupid, pig headed, son of a-

"Hey C!" She flinched at the stupid nick-name he had recently given her. She kept walking because she really didn't want to pay attention to the idiot following her. Five more steps and she wouldn't have to deal with him-

She felt a hand grasp her wrist and pull her out the double doors. She glanced at the pig beside her in irritation. "Don't you have something better to do? Like stalking some _other_ girl?"

He merely smiled and said, "Common C. Don't be like that. You know what? I'm taking you out tonight for a nice meal..." As he talked he led them away from the front of the school.

She let him lead them away because she wanted to beat him up. Normally she wouldn't mind beating him up in front of a bunch of students but she had a very strict talk with her guidance counselor the other day. If she was seen beating up another student then it _would_ go on her permanent record and _every_ single college that she had applied to would turn down her application.

That would not go well with her. She tuned back into his stupid rant because they had stopped. She was suddenly aware that she was up against a wall and he was leaning uncomfortably close to her.

"Michael, if you don't back away from me right now I'm going to-"

His lips smashed against hers and he pinned her hands to the wall above her head. Her emotions shifted from surprised to finally taking in what was happening and then to pissed off. She struggled to push him off of her but Michael was the captain of the wrestling team and he was three times bigger than her. How do you beat up someone like that?

She figured that she had a couple seconds to think of some way to hurt him before he ran off.

"Oh my GODS!" Ares yelled.

"Shhh!" The rest of the Olympians scolded. They were hiding behind the storage shed for the team swimming pool and watching the scene.

"Don't tell me to be quiet! My daughter is being overpowered and you're telling me to shush!"

"Shut up Ares!" Hades pulled him down and spoke in a fast whisper. "We understand that you're mad and you have every right to be but you should wait and see if she can take care of herself without you're interference. Remember the ancient laws!"

Ares got up again and all of the male gods had to pull him down. "F*** the ancient laws! My girl is being assaulted right now!"

The goddesses looked ready to help release Ares from his hold to help Clarisse but they held back.

"I thought you had a rule against intefering with your children's fights?" Zeus said.

"That's bulls*** right now!"

Clarisse knew that Michael couldn't kiss her forever. He had to stop to take a breath sooner or later. When he did that she would knee him and run away. Suddenly Michael changed his body position. His hands started to slip down towards her chest. She started to panic and started to push away from Michael even more.

She knew she would probably get kicked off her position as the leader of the Ares cabin but she sent a prayer to her father. She knew it was a stupid attempt but she _really _needed her father right now.

Michael's hands were five inches from her chest. Four inches, three inches, two inches-suddenly he was wrenched away from her and tossed fifteen feet away. She watched Michael fly momentarily and land hard on his but, the wind knocked out of him.

Michael struggled to regain his breath. Who in the world interrupted him? He was going to beat up the idiot who stopped him. He lay on the ground groaning and looked up. A really buff guy with a black leather jacket and a military styled hair cut was glaring at him. Michael could've sworn that smoke was coming from the eyes behind the glasses the guy was wearing. Kind of like the guy's eyes were _actually_ burning. The multiple scars on the guy's face were pretty intimidating.

"Who the heck are you?"

"Her father!" The guy roared. His voice was so loud that Michael was pushed back on the pavement. Clarisse's dad walked up to Michael and grabbed his collar, hoisting him up so they were eye level. "Beat it punk! Before I knock more than just the wind out of you."

Michael looked down and there was suddenly a giant titanium bat in Clarisse's dad's hands. Michael didn't need to be told twice. He shook himself from the tight grip he was in and bolted for the parking lot. He didn't stop running until he got into his car. He scowled. He would get Clarisse later. He didn't care who got in his way.

Ares walked toward his daughter, who was still standing in the same position she had been before with a stunned expression on her face. When he got within three feet of her he waved his hand in front of her face. "Clarisse? Clarisse, are you okay? Did that guy hurt you?-"

She engulfed her father in a giant hug and started to cry. "Thank you, thank you, thank you..." Ares was startled but held onto her. "It's okay Clarisse. He wont bother you anymore. I'll make sure of it."

The rest of the Olympians sat on the floor near the swimming pool. "Wow..." Hera breathed. "I didn't know that this is what you're children went through every day."

Hermes swallowed hard. "We really should banish those old ancient laws or just forget about them and help our children." The rest of the Olympians nodded.

Aphrodite smiled sadly. "I haven't seen Ares that riled up since the civil war. I never thought I'd see him do something like that."

Hades shrugged. "Wouldn't we all do something like that if it was our children in the same spot as Clarisse?"

Later on Clarisse called Chris and canceled their date. She just didn't feel like she could talk to him after what had happened. She hadn't told him about it because she had no idea how he would react. Her mom hadn't come home yet so she was alone in her apartment.

"Clarisse? Claire? Are you here?" Chris' voice startled her. She cursed under her breath because she remembered that she had given him a spare key to her apartment.

When she didn't answer she could hear him opening and closing doors to try to find her. She hoped that he would just go away but then he opened the door to her room.

He smiled at her but there was a confused look on his face also. "Claire? Why didn't you answer me? I-" Then he noticed the look on her face and the smile fell off his face.

"Claire, what's wrong? What happened?" He walked over to her desk and grabbed the chair that was there. He wheeled it over to where she was sitting on her bed and took a good look at her. She was crestfallen. She wouldn't look at him at all. He wondered what was wrong but couldn't come up to any conclusions.

After sitting there for what seemed like an eternity he cupped her chin in his hands and forced her to look at him in the eye. He was astonished to see her bloodshot eyes staring back at him.

"Oh my gods Clarisse! What happened?"

She shook her head at him and looked down. She didn't trust herself to speak without breaking down. Finally Chris sighed and pulled her into his arms, stroking her hair.

"Claire, I love you. You know that. You can tell me anything." He planted a firm kiss on her lips. She looked straight into his eyes and sighed. "This afternoon when school ended..."

Michael had gone to school the next day. She'd wanted to stay home but she knew she couldn't do that. She didn't have any classes with him so she figured that as long as she avoided him at lunch and after school she would be fine.

The minute the bell rang she hurriedly gathered her things and walked out of the classroom. Surprisingly, she made it outside without any annoying voices calling her names. She walked towards the stream of cars that had come early to pick up students from her school. Chris had told her that he was going to pick her up today. She spotted his mercedes but he wasn't in it.

That's when she noticed the crowd making a circle in the middle of the courtyard. A whole bunch of students were chanting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

She pushed through the crowd just in time to see Michael lying on the floor with a couple of bruises and a bloody nose and Chris (thank the gods he was her boyfriend) was holding Michael's collar. "-and the next time you try to come on to my girl, I'm gonna give you more than just a bloody nose and a few cuts!" Chris pushed Michael down and glared at him for a good second and then started walking away. The crowd dispersed, leaving a groaning Michael moaning for help.

She managed to catch up to him and stop him. She turned him around and for the first time, she noticed that he was glowing red. The blessing of Ares.

"Hey Claire!" He engulfed her in a giant hug and Ares' blessing wore off of him. She hugged him back and when they parted she said, "You didn't have to do that you know?"

Chris smiled. "I'll admit that Ares scared him pretty badly but I wasn't going to take any chances."

Clarisse returned his smile with her own and said, "Thanks. Come on. We should go before one of the teachers find out what happened and call the cops."

In the teachers lounge, the Olympians conversed with their 'fellow' colleagues. They were all dressed profesionally and were supposedly an intern group of teachers who wanted to 'learn' from other teachers. (In other words, it was Athena's idea.)

One of the science teachers sighed. "I should probably go outside and monitor the students so that a fight doesn't break out or something."

"No!" Ares stepped in front of the teacher. "I mean... you haven't even heard my thoughts about global warming yet. I'm sure you'd like to discuss that with all of us." Ares gestured to the Olympians. "The students will be fine. They're mature enough to control theirselves."

The science teacher thought about it for awhile and then shrugged. "Well let's hear you're thoughts."

Ares' eyes widened for a second. He didn't think that that lie would work. He hung around Hermes too much. "Uh... Go ahead and explain your thoughts Mr. Fisher."

Poseidon glared at Ares momentarily but faced the group and started his lecture on global warming.

* * *

><p><strong>Don't bully other people. Help someone in need, even if it might get you in trouble. Review if you feel like it.<strong>

**Erudite19**


	13. Straw From Dummies

Connor Stoll didn't know what to think right now. Well, he did know what to think. He just had to follow the directions that Percy had given his cabin and he could finish the sword move. What or who he couldn't think about right now was Drew.

Ever since the incident that happened in the Hermes cabin she had been distant. He could see her glancing at him from time to time but she never came up to him or said anything to him unless she needed to. The one time he came up to her she wouldn't look him in the eyes and wouldn't really talk to him. Then she muttered an excuse and said she had to go.

What made it more agonizing was that his cabin was practicing with her cabin right now. That hadn't happened all summer. Coincidence much? He didn't know.

Slash upwards, feint to the right, stab in the heart. As he turned around to regain his stance he caught her glance. For a minute, he held her eyes before another Aphrodite girl, a little camper that had just arrived, walked up to Drew and asked her for help with something.

He looked away with sad eyes and continued his sword lesson. He wondered why Aphrodite wouldn't take pity on him and help them out. He wasn't suggesting anything- no, that wasn't it. He just wanted Drew to talk to him for once. _Really_ talk to him. Not just a side conversation that lasted four seconds. An _actual_ conversation would be nice. But he didn't feel like going up to her and talking to her only to get rejected again.

The conch shell for lunch rang and the two cabins started to clean up the arena of the straw that had fallen from the dummies.

Percy cleared his throat. "I need one volunteer from each cabin to clean up the straw off the floor so that the rest of the cabins can go to lunch on time."

No one stepped forward to volunteer. "Okay," Percy said. He scanned the crowd. "Drew and... Connor! You two can clean up the mess. Everyone else can go to lunch."

As the cabins filed out of the arena Drew paled considerably. How was she going to get out of this mess? She could always charmspeak him into getting out of the situation. Yeah... that would work.

She took a deep breath and walked over to him. He was picking up some of the straw when she walked over. He thought that she was going to talk to him and immediately brightened up but then he saw the look on her face and knew that that wasn't why she was there in the first place.

Before she could even open her mouth to speak he muttered, "You can go ahead to lunch. I'll clean up the mess. I'm not that hungry anyways."

Startled by his response, Drew started, "Connor I-"

"Go on." He turned away from her and walked to the other side of the arena to pick up some of the straw there. She frowned and slumped her shoulders but she didn't say anything. She walked out of the arena and was about to go to the dining pavilion when an arm reached out of a bush and dragged her in it. She didn't have any time to scream because it all happened so fast.

When she looked up she could see the faces of Piper and... Connor? No, Travis. They were both staring down at her as she adjusted herself so she could sit down correctly.

The second time this month that she was abducted by a Stoll and dragged into a bush. Each time by a different Stoll and this time her half sister- which she had somehow come to care for- had _helped_ him? Unbelievable.

Travis gave her a stern look. "You know... you have a lot of guts walking around this camp and ignoring my little brother. Do you know how depressed he is? He hasn't slept in-"

"Thank you Travis," Piper interrupted. "For making Drew feel even worse." She sent a threatening glare to him and he got the message.

Travis smiled sheepishly and looked at Drew. "Sorry. I'm gonna go now." Travis climbed out of the bush and headed to the dining pavilion.

Drew glanced at Piper nervously. She knew exactly what was going on and she didn't want to hear it but Piper's stern gaze held her eyes.

Piper took a deep breath. "Drew... you have to talk to him. You can't ignore him just because something awkward happened. You have to-"

"H-how'd you know that?"

"I guessed by the way you were acting. But you cannot ignore him. Don't you see the way you're hurting him? The way you're hurting yourself?"

Drew wouldn't meet Piper's eyes. "I can't, okay? I just can't." By this time she knew that Piper wasn't charmspeaking her.

"No." Drew was surprised by the demanding tone in Piper's voice. "You're going to march your little cosmotopian butt back into that arena and _actually talk_ to that boy. You're _going_ to stop hurting him and yourself. Go!"

Piper pushed her out of the bush before she could say anything and she stumbled into the arena. Connor was picking up the remaining of the straw and stuffing it into a giant bag. He looked up at her and raised his eyebrow but didn't say anything.

She walked over to him and stood there for awhile unsure of what to say. She opened her mouth several times but didn't know what to say so she closed it.

"Well," Dionysus said. "This relationship is _definitely_ going somewhere."

Aphrodite sent him the best glare that she could. They were disguised as stuffed animal's heads on the walls of the arena. Dionysus had put them up that morning so that no one would get stabbed with swords anymore by unexperienced _or_ experienced campers.

Hades furrowed his eyebrows. "I don't get it. If they both know they like each other and they like each other back then why won't they just get it over with?"

Ares and Hermes looked at him skeptically. "So," Ares said. "You wan't him to walk up to her and confess his undying love for her?"

Hades nodded. "That's what I did with Persephone."

Hermes shook his head. "I respect you for that Hades, really. But this is the twenty-first century... A.C. not B.C." They turned their attention back to the couple (well not yet anyways).

Connor sighed and finished putting the rest of the straw in a bag that he had found. He hoisted the bag onto his back and looked at Drew. "Look Drew, I told you that you could go to lunch. It's not a-"

The bag popped and Connor was suddenly showered with three pounds of straw. He coughed several times before he got a hang of himself and surveyed his area. The seven feet perimeter around him was covered with straw.

Then the most melodic sound that he'd ever heard came to his ears and he looked around and tried to find where it was coming from. But the only person that was there was Drew.

Drew.

He watched her laugh in a trance. Then he had an idea and a mischevious smile grew on his face. "Oh, so you think that's funny?"

She managed to stop laughing and said, "You should've seen the look on your face. It was hilarious!"

While she was trying to catch her breath he picked up two handfuls of straw and showered it all over her. She screamed and pulled away from him. "Oh yeah? Well-" She picked up a handful of hay. "How do you like this?"

She stuffed it inside his shirt and he squirmed to get it loose. When he finally got the last straw loose he glared at her and she stopped laughing. Then, all at once, a full fledged war began and they ran around the arena pelting each other with straws.

"Wow." Percy said. "I wish I could run around and pelt people with straw."

All of the head counselors looked at him funny. "What? Don't act like you didn't think about it."

They all stopped looking at him weirdly. They had snuck into the stands when Connor's bag had dropped and were surveying the scene.

Piper shrugged. "It's kind of nice that Drew's fallen in love with Connor and vice versa. She's not that mean anymore."

The other counselors except for Travis nodded. "Whoa! Wait a minute! My brother is _not_ in love! Maybe a crush but-"

Piper sent him a knowing look and she glanced at Katie. That shut him up.

Drew ran away from Connor while laughing. He was laughing too. He had huge handfuls of straw that she was sure he was going to pour all over her. He caught up to her and grabbed her around the waist. They lost balance and fell down on the straw. She giggled and moved her arms and legs so that she made straw angels.

After a moment of silence they both got up to go their seperate ways but when they sat up their faces were ten inches away. Drew wanted to turn around and probably run away but his gaze held her down.

He leaned down and this time there was no one to interrupt them.

Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Well it's about time."

Will looked at her. "Is that your signature or something? You say it all the time."

Clarisse shrugged. "Well it's true."

Hemes sniffed proudly. "That's my son! Look at him go get his woman." He erupted into fits of sobbing.

Artemis rolled her eyes. "Stop acting like such an idiot."

* * *

><p><strong>Erudite19<strong>


	14. Fish Tanks are Sleeping Pills

**Warning: SoN spoilers. There's not that many spoilers in there, but it's up to you if you want to read it or not.**

* * *

><p>Nico di Angelo picked up his bowl and finished slurping his soup. He started reaching across the table when Thalia smacked his hand.<p>

"Holy Zeus, Nico! One feast at a time!" The other demigods at the table chuckled lightly as Nico sent an irritated look towards Thalia.

"It's not my fault. It took two days to get here and I haven't had this much food since I left my apartment!"

Everyone rolled their eyes at Nico. Jason walked up to the table and sat next to Piper. He kissed her cheek and addressed the remaining demigods at the table. "Where's Percy and Annabeth? I thought they were coming today."

Clarisse shook her head. "They're coming tomorrow."

"What?" Travis said. "I thought they were going to come on Thursday?"

"That was before." Katie told her husband. "They rescheduled because Annabeth was feeling better."

They were all at a private house on Long Island for vacation. This would be what you would call a 'family reunion'. All of the former head counselors,centurions, and praetors were there along with their kids (if they had any). Percy and Annabeth were coming later on in the week because who could come to a family reunion _right _after they gave birth? To _twins_?

"Maybe they can keep Nico from eating the entire supply of food that we have." Frank said.

Hazel rolled her eyes. "I doubt that."

"Whatever." Nico frowned, then he grinned broadly.

Reyna raised an eyebrow at him. "What are you smiling about?"

Rachel shook her head. "It's probably best you don't ask, Reyna."

"Too late." Nico said. "Watch this." He pulled out a drachma and turned to Leo. "I need to contact Percy. Can you-"

Leo grabbed his cup and the water in it started to steam. Nico threw a drachma through it and said, "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show us Percy Jackson."

The mist shimmered and Percy appeared in a nursery in a blue rocking chair. His head was on his chest but you could still see the black hair on his chin.

"Percy." Nico said.

"Mmm."

"Percy!"

"Two more minutes Annabeth."

"PERCY!"

Percy jumped out of the rocking chair and looked around frantically. The minute he saw Nico a look of irritation crossed his face. But before he could say anything a wail came up from the two cribs near the wall.

"Why Nico?" Percy sighed exasperated. "Why? I just got them to sleep."

He rushed over to the the cribs and took out two bundles. Two babies wrapped in pink clothes.

"Awww!" Piper said. "They're so cute Percy!"

Some of the others nodded.

"Shhh." Percy said. "Annabeth's sleeping."

Percy tried to calm down his kids but nothing would work. They just kept crying.

"Come on Percy," Nico urged. "Do the thing."

"What thing?"

"The one where you pull out the board and the fish tank-"

"Is that why you woke me up? So that I could-!"

More crying.

Percy sighed and glared at Nico momentarily. "Wait," Frank interrupted. "What thing?"

Percy put down one of the babies and adjusted the other one in his arms. Then he spoke in the softest voice that they had only ever heard him use with Annabeth.

"Hey Sophia. How's my little girl doing? How're you doing Sophie?" As he talked he pulled out a white board with what seemed to be a combination of ancient greek and a whole bunch of equations on it. The moment Sophia saw the board her crying lessened. She stopped screaming (unlike her twin) but she was still crying a little.

Percy sighed and brought out a pacifier. He tried to put it in Sophia's mouth but the baby protested. He rolled his eyes and put it in her hands. Sophia showed off her gums-since she didn't have any teeth yet-and put the pacifier in her mouth.

Percy started reading the equation on the board. "If triangle A has the coordinate points of..."

By the time he finished reading the equation Sophia was fast asleep.

"Is...is she _asleep_?" Thalia asked incredulously. Percy nodded. The others gaped at Sophia while Nico shook his head. "That works every time for you, doesn't it?"

"Wow." Travis said. "I wish I could show Bobby the schematics for a bank robbery and have her fall asleep. Make parenting easier." The other demigods nodded.

Percy put Sopia back in her crib. He picked up the other baby, she wasn't crying as much as before but Percy didn't doubt that Annabeth would be awake soon if he didn't do something.

He walked over to the white board and pushed it back to its original place. He approached the wall and pushed a button that seemed almost invisible. When he stepped back a rectangle compartment of the wall disappeared and revealed a giant fish tank filled with multi-colored fish from all over the world.

"Look Lily." Percy adjusted Lily in his arms so she could see the tank. "Look at the fish Lilypad. Aren't they pretty?"

Immediately, Lily squeled in excitement. Percy brought her closer and watched as she followed the fish swim back and forth in the tank. Soon, her eyelids started to droop. By the time Percy brought her to her crib she was sleeping contentedly.

Dakota shook his head. "Amazing." He brought out his flask and took a long drink of red kool-aid.

The Olympians gaped at the Iris message. "Did," Ares started. "Did-was I the only one who saw that?"

The Olympians shook their heads. "Wow." Hermes said. "How do you think Jackson figured that out?"

Poseidon shrugged. "If Lily loved playing in the water during bathtime then he could have thought of the fish tank. As for the equations... I don't know."

Athena seemed to think over that for a second. "Maybe they thought that if Lily responded to water that way then Sophia would respond to equations that way. One who favors Poseidon's realm and one who favors mine."

"But," Zeus said. "that's never happened to any legacy before."

Aphrodite cocked her head. "Maybe it's a thing with twins. I mean, it certainly happens to our children."

Artemis stifled a laugh. "What's so funny Artemis?" Apollo asked. She pointed towards the Iris message. Percy was sitting on the rocking chair, staring at the fish tank, his head going back and forth with the fish. He seemed to nod from time to time.

"Percy?" Nico asked. "Percy? Are you still awake? Percy?"

Percy closed his eyes and entered a deep sleep.

"I never knew that that would work with demigods too." Ares smiled.

Hestia shook her head with a smile. "That's probably how their parents got them to fall asleep when they were little. Demigods _are _stubborn. It's probably hard to raise them _and_ be a single parent."

* * *

><p><strong>Review if you feel like it. There's a very slim chance that I'll get another chapter up tomorrow so... 'Till next weekend.<strong>

**Erudite19**


	15. Run For Your Deaths

The roar of the crowd was defeaning. Thousands of demigods in swimsuits lining the seats. Did I mention that they were all dead? In Elysium?

_puh! puh! puh!_

"Is this thing on? Oh...epic fail. Anyways, welcome ladies and gentlemen, spirits of the Underworld! Roman and Greek alike! Brothers and sisters-"

"Get on with the show!"

The announcer sent an annoying look towards the person in the crowd who yelled out. "My name, as you all should know me, is Bellerophon!" Bellerophon stopped and waited for the crowd to settle down. "Today, before you can use the swimming pool, we will witness a swimming contest between Nico di Angelo-"

Nico stepped out in black swimming trunks embroidered with the damned-a birthday present from his father-his pale muscles were chiseled like he'd been practicing for this contest his whole death (since he's not alive).

"-and Percy Jackson!"

Percy stepped out in green swimming trunks with a black stripe running down either side. A golden trident running down each pant leg. Unlike Nico, his muscles were smooth and tan. They both took their place at the end of the swimming pool and a silence took over the crowd.

"Mark! Set!" A gun shot sounded off and the two spirits took to the pool. At first it seemed like Nico was actually going to win but when they reached the edge of the pool (which was twice the size of a football stadium) Percy managed to turn before Nico and propel himself forward.

"This is it!" Announced Bellerophon. "The first person to reach the edge of the pool wins the contest! It looks like it's going to be close."

Percy was in the lead, no doubt about that, but Nico was only trailing five feet and was catching up.

_Seventy-five yards, fifty yards, thirty yards, fifteen, seven, two..._

"Ladies and gentlemen, our winner, Percy Jackson!"

Percy swam over to Nico and ignored the crowd's approving roar. "Good job Nico. You almost had me on the run."

Nico smirked. "Maybe next time Percy."

"_Sure._"

"Alright." Bellerophon boomed. "You can jump into the-" Bellerophon was trampled by a mob of people who were trying to get into the pool.

When he finally got himself free, his swimming trunks were somehow backwards, his lower lip was bleeding, and his hair was out of place. "Jeez, it's just a pool-"

He got hit with a flying discus.

Hazel swam over to Nico. "Not bad Nico. I thought you would've been just reaching the half way mark while Percy would've been nearing the finish line like last time."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Oh haha."

Annabeth smiled at Percy. "That was a really nice thing you did Percy."

Percy acted surprised. "What do you mean?" He gazed over to the other side of the pool where Nico was talking to Hazel.

Annabeth made Percy look at her. "Don't play with me Percy. You went slow on purpose so Nico wouldn't look like a total fool in front of everyone again."

"I did no such thing-okay fine. But I only did it because of what happened last time. Was it that obvious?"

"No." Annabeth said. "I was just guessing. I'm glad I was right."

Suddenly a giant Iris-mesage appeared at the end of the pool. It shimmered to reveal the throne room on Olympus. The twelve Olympians-including Hades and Hestia-sat on their thrones. Some of the demigods looked surprised that the gods were even sending them a message, the rest of them looked extremely bored.

Nevertheless, they bowed in respect to their parents. "Um," Nico started. "Any reason why you're sending us a message?"

Zeus cleared his throat. "Right. Well, we have some news that we really think you all should hear. Since the majority of you are here right now we figured that it'd be best to tell you now."

Zeus glanced at Athena with a playful look in his eyes. Athena was squirming uncomfortably in her throne.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. _Since when did Zeus smile like that? What's going on?_

Zeus looked at Poseidon. "Well brother? Tell our children your _wonderful _news. Ares? Would you like to help Poseidon?"

Ares smirked. "Oh no, I believe Lord Poseidon can handle this well."

Poseidon glared at Zeus and Ares then he looked at Percy and Frank. "Ahenta and I are gttineg mrriead."

Percy and Frank knit their eyebrows. "What'd you say?" Frank asked.

"Yeah." Percy said. "I couldn't really understand that."

"Ahenta and I are gttineg mrriead."

Percy frowned. "Dad, I don't understand that."

Ares smiled wickedly. "What he means is, he's getting married to Athena!"

...

A large gasp emitted from the demigods. Percy swallowed nervously. He looked at Frank and he could tell they were thinking the same thing, _What the Hades/Pluto?_ Annabeth was looking at Ares uncomprehendingly like she still didn't get what he had said.

"I'm sorry?" Percy said. "Can you repeat that again? I don't think I heard you right."

Poseidon shook his head. "You heard him right son. Ares speaks the truth. I've divorced Amphitrite. Athena will be your step-mother."

A defeaning hush fell over the crowd as everyone looked at Athena. To Annabeth's horror Athena was _actually_ smiling slightly at Poseidon. And then to Percy's horror, Poseidon beamed at her and made her blush.

Pandemonium broke out the second a bunch of Poseidon's kids fainted in the pool.

"Run for your deaths!" Nico screamed. "Run for your deaths! The end of the world really _is _coming!"

Everyone started screaming and in one minute, half of the demigods were out of the pool. Jason flew into the air.

"It's alright everyone. Exit in a calm 'the world is going to end matter'."

More screaming.

"That's great. Really." Jason rolled his eyes. "If you'd like to preserve your deaths please exit to the left of the pool for emergency deportation to the fields of Asphodel. If you'd like to get back to your apartments and houses and huddle in the corners of your rooms of Elysium please exit to the right."

Everyone automatically went to the right.

Connor and Travis ran around in circles since they didn't know what to do. Eventually they bumped into each other and knocked theirselves out.

Thalia walked into the swimming pool to see the disaster. "What's going on?"

Everyone screeched to a halt and looked at her. Frank swallowed hard. "Athena and Poseidon are getting married."

Thalia looked at the Iris-message to find the gods stifling their laughter. She rolled her eyes. "You guys know it's April Fools right?"

"Oh."

* * *

><p><strong>Review if you feel like it. <strong>

**Erudite19**


	16. TwentyEight

Seventeen.

When they were seventeen they spent _every_ moment together.

Eighteen.

He learned how to dance and went to her's and his prom even though he'd originally planned to skip it all together.

Nineteen.

He gave her a new necklace to match her owl earrings.

Twenty.

He finally got the guts to tell her she was beautiful. (Even though he'd thought she was for about five years.)

Twenty-one.

He sung 'Just the Way You Are By Bruno Mars' to her, which made him blush as much as it did her.

Twenty-two.

He spent an hour trying to tell her that he loved her. Then when he finally got it out and she replied the same way he spent the next two or three weeks grinning like an idiot.

Twenty-three.

He spent three hours telling her in exact detail what he loved about her.

Twenty-four.

When he learned that her roommate had gone to a different college he'd stayed at her dorm the _entire_ night just talking with her. When she'd fallen asleep he repeated the entire list of things he'd compiled about what he loved about her.

Twenty-five.

One afternoon while studying with her, he'd glanced at her and in that split-second he'd decided that she was the most important thing, person, whatever-you name it-... in his life.

Twenty-six.

After ten drafts, six revisions, Thalia looking over it maybe a hundred times, and several mental meltdowns, he'd sent Athena what was about a three page letter - he remembered to spare the details - asking her for permission to have her daughter's hand in marriage.

Twenty-six and a half.

When Athena had finally responded with a yes he spent an hour forcefully locked up in a room with the Athena cabin-who'd somehow figured out that he was going to ask Annabeth to marry him-, Nico who'd come with the Stolls so they could video tape the event-only to have the camera broken by Thalia-, Thalia-who even after helping him with his letter still had a couple of things to say to him about marrying her best friend-(he would keep that in mind if Leo ever proposed to her-since she'd been dating him for a while now), and Mathew and Bobby-who turned out to be _very_ protective of Annabeth and had flown across the United States after pleading with their father to attend this meeting.

Twenty-seven.

After multiple exasperated sighs and death threats from Thalia-because that's how she operated sometimes (and Leo was getting tired of holding her back from attacking him)-he'd finally asked Annabeth to marry him.

When she'd said yes it took him a full ten seconds to realize what she'd said and hug her back. Only after that did he realize the favor Thalia had done him because Annabeth would've probably left him if they hadn't gone to the next level.

Twenty-eight.

He had to admit to himself-he didn't think he deserved someone so beautiful, gracious, intelligent, and not to mention pretty tough-person like Annabeth. How'd he end up with her in the first place? He really didn't understand that. But... yet here she was.

She was letting go of her father's hand and suddenly holding his. How'd his hand get there? He didn't know. His whole body seemed to be on auto pilot doing everything right on time. He figured it was just the owls in his stomach taking charge instead of doing stunts and giving him the butterflies.

Then, he was even more surprised at how easily the words 'i do' came out of his mouth. So clearly and loud.

He hadn't hesitated to kiss her, even though he knew Athena was somewhere in the crowd.

Then at the wedding reception his father had come up to him while he was watching her dance with her brothers.

"So then you really love her Percy?"

"Yeah." To the mortals, Poseidon was dressed in a black tuxedo but anyone who could see through the mist could see the golden cuff bracelets on his wrists and the aura of power emanating around him.

"Do-do you approve? Of our marriage?"

Poseidon sighed. "As much of a burden it is to be related to Athena-" Percy smirked. "-As long as you are happy with her and vice versa I approve. Besides, it seems like you two share a very special bond. I'm not going to try to change that. Although, to this day I still don't know how you got Athena's permission to marry Annabeth."

Percy sighed. "It's a really long process dad."

"You got that right!" Thalia yelled from across the room.

Poseidon shook his head. "I imagine it is. Don't try to explain. At the moment I think you have other things to worry about. Like the food fight about to occur."

"What?"

"You should probably get Annabeth." And with that, Poseidon was whisked away in a sea breeze.

Percy met Annabeth in the middle of the dance floor. "Food fight?" She questioned.

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

"Athena just talked to me."

To their right Nico tripped and accidently smashed his pie in Thalia's face.

Percy's eyes bugged out. "What now?" Annabeth asked. "The limo's not going to come for three more hours."

"Um...under the table."

He pulled her under right before a pie smashed on the floor in the spot where she was standing.

"Wow." Percy marveled. Then he turned to Annabeth. "Are you mad that your reception will be turned into a food war between demigods and some mortals?"

Annabeth smiled. "No. I had a feeling this was going to happen so I told the caterer to put extra food on the tables and to video tape the whole thing."

Percy smiled back at her and planted a firm kiss on her lips. "I love you."

"I love you too."


	17. Teenage Dream

Right foot left, left foot right... Or was it left foot left, then both feet right? Coonor sighed in aggravation as he stumbled over his feet. Travis wasn't doing any better too. The pain that kept shooting through their legs each type they stepped on each other's foot was so numbing they didn't realize they were getting hurt anymore.

Finally Travis stopped. "This is getting no where."

"I know," Connor agreed. "But if we don't learn how to dance we're going to look like total fools at prom."

"Well we would've learned already if our dance instructor hadn't quit." Travis said.

Connor stared at him for a moment before saying, "It's not _my_ fault she fell out the window."

"You were leading the dance."

"We were by the window."

"You kept dancing even after the music stopped playing."

"It's not _my_ fault she decided to get mesmerizing contacts that day." Connor said. "And you _know_ they were mesmerizing."

"Whatever," Travis rolled his eyes. "Let's try again."

Travis held his left hand on Connor's waist while he clasped his right hand in Connor's left hand. They were about to take the first step when a voice said, "You guys aren't going to get any where like that."

The brothers startled away from each other and glared at the darkly dressed boy. Nico di Angelo was lounging on Connor's desk chair and had his feet propped up on the desk.

Travis shared a look with Connor. They were used to getting visits from Nico like this. "What do you want this time Nico?" Connor asked.

"Chiron wanted to know when you two were coming to camp so he could assign a leader while you're gone."

"We're going to be there in two weeks." Travis said. "Now, if you could just leave that would be-"

"You guys are doing it all wrong." Nico interrupted.

"What?" Travis asked. "We're perfectly able of learning how to dance. Just leave us-"

Nico sighed and stood up. "Hold me."

"What?"

"You want to learn how to dance or not Stoll?"

Travis glanced at his brother who shrugged and clasped his right hand in Nico's and his left hand on his waist. "I want you to know, this feels extremely awkward."

"Well it doesn't feel any less awkward on this side." Nico said. "Now follow my lead. And try not to step on my feet." Nico straightened his back. "Stand up straight."

"But I'm tired."

"Stand up straight!"

"Okay, jeez."

After several misteps and a few choice words from the son of Hades, Nico broke off of Travis and grabbed Connor. "Now do the same thing your brother did minus the stepping on my feet part."

After a few minutes Nico thought Connor was doing fine so he said, "Alright now twirl me."

"Nico I'm not gonna-"

"Twirl!" So Connor twirled him.

* * *

><p>The day after Connor and Travis went to get fitted for their suites. While they were getting measured by their tailors Nico shadow traveled into their room.<p>

"Oh great." Connor muttered. "Are you stalking us di Angelo?"

"Don't answer that." Travis said.

Nico surveyed the suits they were about to put on and shook his head. "What are you guys getting ready for anyways?"

The boys shared a grimace. "We're being forced to take part in the social event called prom." Travis answered.

"By whom?"

"_Whom?_ Ugh, you've been hanging out around Annabeth too much." Travis said.

"Alright," Nico rolled his eyes. "Who's forcing you to go?"

"Katie." Travis said dreamily.

"The beautiful goddess I love whom civilization calls Drew." Connor said with the same look on his face.

Travis and Nico stared at him in surprise for a moment.

"Love?" Travis asked him.

"Uh..."

Nico thought about that for a while. "Well you can't get suites." He turned to the tailors. "Get them something better, more formal... tuxedos!"

At once, the tailors left the room and dissapeared through the racks of clothes.

"Nico!"

"Oh come on." He said. "Drew and Katie-Drew especially-are probably going to go to prom in an extremely nice dress. As the boyfriend you can't outshine them but you have to look good. You have to compliment their dress."

Connor knit his eyebrows. "We were already going to compliment them on how they look. We were going to say that they look beautiful and how we like their hair."

Nico face-palmed. "That's not what I mean. Your outfit has to compliment hers."

Travis cocked his head. "So we have to be matching with what they wear?"

Connor's eyes bugged out. "I am _not_ going to prom in a pink tuxedo! Not! Overruled! N-O."

Nico smirked at Connor. "That would be great if you did. I imagine Drew _would_ go in something pink. I wonder if they make pink tuxedos..."

"We don't have enough money for tuxedos anyway." Travis said.

"Don't worry about that." Nico held up a credit card.

"Where'd you get that?" Connor asked.

"Hades gave it to me as a birthday present last year." Nico said. "I help distract Demeter from him sometimes and I need money for whenever I go into the mortal world so every month or so he deposits some money in it. It only works when I use it though so if someone else tries to use it, they disappear."

"Oh."

Just then the tailors walked in. Connor sighed in relief when a pink tuxedo wasn't among the picks.

Nico frowned at Connor's suit. "Would be better if it's pink."

"Well too bad." Connor said.

"Why do we have to get so dressed up anyways? It's only prom." Travis whined.

Nico gasped. "Prom is the most important milestone in a girl's life other than marriage and her first kiss. If she doesn't have a good prom then you're going to be stuck hearing about it for the rest of your life. Even if you don't end up with her. It'll find a way to come back and haunt you."

Connor raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"At your ten year reunion."

...

"Wow." Connor frowned. "From your mouth you make it sound extremely horrible."

"He's the son of the lord of the dead." Travis said. "He's good at that."

"How do you know so much about this anyways?" Connor asked while he and Travis were getting dressed.

Nico shrugged. "I hang out with my dad a lot. Sometimes he's not there when I go to the throne room and there's this table with a whole bunch of fashion magazines. Needless to say, I get bored sometimes. Then one day Aphrodite gave me her blessing and she told my dad to put extra money on my credit card to pay for my fashion expenses.

"Now look in the mirrors."

The two boys turned around and admired theirselves in the mirror.

"I have to say," Travis adjusted his suit. "I look pretty good."

"Mm." Nico mused. "But something's missing. If only you had a pink tuxedo-"

"Forget it 'cause I'm _not_ getting one."

"Oh come on." Nico said. "We can get a manly shade of pink if you want."

"There's no manly shade of pink." Connor whined.

"Yes there is. Hot pink." Much to Nico's demise, they left the store without getting a pink tuxedo.

* * *

><p>Two days before prom Travis and Connor sat in their living room and flipped through the T.V. channels with little interest.<p>

Connor was about to suggest they play video games when the ground split open. Skeletons erupted from the ground. The boys were so shocked that they could barely say anything. The skeletons grabbed them and started dragging them out of the house. On the way out Connor managed to say, "Mom! We're going out. We'll be back soon... hopefully."

"Okay!" His mom shouted back.

The skeletons brought them around the back of the house where their master was waiting. Nico snapped his fingers and the skeletons dropped Connor and Travis and started walking around the neighborhood.

"Um," Connor gestured to the skeletons. "Shouldn't you..."

"What?" Nico asked innocently.

"Never mind that." Travis sighed. "What now Nico?"

"We're going out."

"Where?" Connor asked.

"To the jewelry store. You guys look bland with your regular tuxedos." Nico answered. "Plus, you have to get something to give to Katie and Drew on Prom night."

"You're taking this really seriously Nico." Travis said.

Nico shrugged. Then his face brightened up like he forgot something. "Oh, we also need to go to the tattoo shop."

"WHAT?"

"Relax, you're not going to get tattoos." Connor and Travis let out a breath of air.

"You're going to get piercings."

"Why?" Connor asked, alarmed.

"I'll explain when we get there. Now come on. If you don't come I'll just summon my skeletons so they can carry you there."

The boys reluctantly followed the son of Hades. They took the Gray Sisters cab to KAY Jewelers. When they entered Nico said, "You guys are only here for three things; cuff links for your tuxedos, an earring, and a necklace for either Drew or Katie."

Travis knit his eyebrows. "Then who's the earrings for?"

"You two of course. It adds style to your look." He dismissed the horrified looks on their faces. "Why do you think you're going to get piercings? Now start looking. I don't have that much time today."

The boys deliberately picked out only the necklaces and cuff links. They thought that if they didn't take any earrings that Nico would forget about it but of course the son of Hades took it upon himself when he saw that they couldn't 'decide'.

Then Connor saw a gold bracelet intertwined with silver. "Woah, this would be perfect for Drew."

Nico walked up behind him and admired the bracelet. "Then get it."

Connor shook his head. "I appreciate you paying but it's too much money."

Nico shook his head. "Nonsense. Go ahead and get it. Live in the teenage dream Connor, just don't go all the way."

"What?"

"Just get the bracelet already." So Connor took the bracelet instead of the necklace.

After they paid for the jewelry Nico's skeletons have dragged and half carried Connor and Travis. When they got near the tattoo shop Nico said, "You two can't act like wimps in front of these guys okay. They'll knock your teeth out real quick. Trust me I've seen it happen before. So man up!"

The boys quickly pulled theirselves together and entered the shop. Nico told them to sit down on one of the chairs while he went to the back to talk to someone.

Travis immediately turned to Connor. "We need to get out of here." He said in a low whisper.

"We can't." Connor said. His voice sounded extremely squeky. "Look." He pointed at the door and the two inched away from it warely. There was an extremely buff skeleton there that looked like a human except his skin was flappy and gray.

Nico came from the back. Following him was a teenager with multiple face piercings and tattoos of dragons on her left arm.

"Guys, this is Carla. Carla, this is Travis and Connor. They're going to get their ears pierced so they can wear earrings when the go to prom."

"Alright," Carla replied. "Let's get started."

"Wait!" Connor squeked. "Don't you need to wait a couple of weeks or months after you get a piercing before you can wear earrings?"

Nico smiled. "Why do I not like the look on your face?" Travis said.

"Carla is a daughter of Hephaestus who specializes in piercings. Her tools are magical so your ears will heal within an hour." Nico said.

"Oh joy." Travis muttered.

* * *

><p>In the throne room on Mount Olympus when the gods are having an emergency meeting. "So," Poseidon continued. "The salt levels should remain the same if they don't tamper with the Dead Sea. I believe-"<p>

"Ahhh!"

"Oh my," Artemis said. "What was that?"

Hades smirked and glanced at Aphrodite, who was beaming at Hermes. Hermes had a frown on his face and winced at the scream.

"Oh don't worry about that." Hades said. "Continue Zeus."

* * *

><p><em>Prom Night<em>

Travis walked up the steps to Katie's house. He was hesistant to knock on the door because the last time he'd done that Mr. Gardner had put him in a wrestler's hold. He glanced back at the limo that Nico had rented. Connor rolled down the windows and gestured for him to go ahead and knock on it.

He was about to shake his head no and go back into the limo but Nico came out of the bushes, "No, you are not chickening out Stoll. I did not make you look that handsome and train you to dance better and hold you down while you got a piercing just so you could chicken out on prom night. Now march your but up there and get your girlfriend into that limo!"

Travis steeled his nerves and walked up to the house. He knocked three times and reconsidered running back to the limo when Katie's dad answered the door.

His eyes narrowed. "Travis Stoll..."

"Hello sir."

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to pick your daughter up for prom...sir."

"Oh yes." Mr. Gardner looked over Travis. "You been treating my daughter well Stoll?"

"Yes sir."

"Mm. 'Cause if you ever break her heart I'm going to-"

"Dad!" Mr. Gardner smiled at his daughter and looked at Travis innocently. "I was just having a little talk with Troy."

"Actually it's Travis sir."

"Same difference." Mr. Gardner said. "I'll leave you two alone now." Mr. Gardner walked away from the two. Travis got a good look at Katie and caught his breath. She was wearing a dress the color of wheat that contrasted against her skin perfectly. "Wow, Katie. You look beautiful."

She blushed and smiled at him. "You don't look that bad your self. When'd you get your ears pierced?"

"It's a really long story." He replied.

"I like it." He smiled at her and remembered the necklace. "Close your eyes."

She raised a delicate eyebrow but did as he asked. A moment later she felt something cold tingling at her neck. She looked down and gasped when she saw the silver necklace around her neck. At the end was a gold heart lined with diamonds. She turned around and beamed at Travis. "It's beautiful."

"It looks even better on you." He smiled at her and led her to the limo.

"Hey Connor." Katie said when they finally got in. "And... Nico?"

"Katie." Nico nodded in respect. Katie sent a questioning look to Travis but he just shrugged and said, "Don't worry about it."

Finally they reached Drew's house. Connor took a deep breath and got out of the car. He was about to go knock on her door when Nico stopped him.

"I'm really getting tired of this but what now di Angelo?"

Nico ignored the tone of his voice and touched his white dress shirt. The color changed to hot pink, much to Connor's surprise and dismay.

"What?" Nico asked with a smug look on his face. "You wouldn't get a hot pink tuxedo so you should at least wear a hot pink shirt."

"How'd you do that?" Katie asked with a look of amasement.

"Blessing of Aphrodite." Nico answered. "It's a long story." Then he turned to Connor. "When you give her the bracelet show her the engraving."

_Engraving?_

Connor didn't know what Nico meant but he couldn't think about that because he was already at her the door. He knocked on the door and was relieved when Drew answered. She was wearing an LBD except it was hot pink and had ruffles at the end. He secretly thanked Nico for changing the color of his shirt.

"Hi Drew. You look beautiful as always." She smiled at him and then noticed his ears. "Oh my gods! You got your ears pierced!"

"Uh, yeah. About that-"

"It looks _so_ cute on you!" He grinned and grabbed her hand. She didn't pay much attention to that gesture because he always did that but shen she felt the cold metal on her wrists she looked down and gasped. "Oh my gods Connor! Is this gold? How'd you pay for this?"

"I know some people." She punched him in the shoulder playfully. "You better not have stolen it."

"I didn't, I swear!"

"Good."

Then he remembered what Nico had told him. "Look at the engraving."

Drew looked down at the bracelet and squinted her eyes. "Stupid dyslexia." She muttered. Then she read, "Connor plus Drew. I'll love you forever."

His eyes bugged out on that last sentence. _Damn you Nico!_

In the car the son of Hades grinned smugly.

Drew's eyes watered and she looked up from the bracelet. "Do you mean that?"

He swallowed hard but he nodded because he did mean it. "I really love you Drew."

"I love you too Connor."

He kissed her and led her towards the limo. It turned out Nico was right. Connor only heard about that night only one or two more times in his life.

* * *

><p><strong>I personally feel this was a fluffy chapter. Tell me which couple to do next. Review if you feel like it.<strong>

**Erudite19**


	18. The Next Step

Piper Mclean sighed. They'd been at this for hours and still couldn't come up with an answer. Add to the fact that she was getting extremely annoyed with Jason. Percy and Annabeth had left three hours ago doing Zeus knows what and Thalia had left because Leo had started to annoy her. How were they supposed to come up with a new plan to beat the romans if they keep disaggreeing?

"Maybe we should just take a break and start over tomorrow?" Piper suggested. Jason took a good look at her and nodded. He was tired and his mind was overwhelmed with all of the battle plans they had suggested.

Piper got up and was about to walk out of the Zeus cabin when Jason spotted Drew and Connor outside and pulled her back into the cabin and crouched low on the floor. He pulled Piper back with him. "What are you-!"

"Shhh!" Jason said. He pointed through the window and let Piper see the son of Hermes and daughter of Aphrodite walk by. After they passed by Jason sighed and sat on the floor. He didn't realize that he had pulled Piper down into the little alcove that Thalia had slept in years earlier. Piper picked up one of the fallen pictures and smiled.

"Thalia and Annabeth look so young here." Jason looked at the picture she was referring to: The one with Thalia, Annabeth, and Luke in a picture booth. "Who's that guy?"

Jason frowned. "That's Luke. Apparently he's dead now but I don't know why." They sat in silence for a moment.

"So what are you going to do when you leave camp?" Piper asked.

Jason cocked. "I don't know. After building the Argo II, Leo kind of got me interested in airplane engines and airplane designs. There's a school in New York where I can learn that. So I'm thinking about going back. What are you going to do?"

Piper shrugged. "I don't know either. My cabin kind of got me interested in fashion so..."

Jason smirked. "I never thought I'd hear the day that Piper Mclean talk about fashion in interest."

"Oh shut up." Piper smiled. "I thought of it before. I just never really voiced it. Is that so bad?"

"No. Not at all." Jason said. "It's just, unexpected."

"How is it unexpected?" Piper raised a delicate eyebrow. "I mean my mom _is_ Aphrodite."

"I know. But I wouldn't have guessed you'd go into that field."

"I wouldn't have guessed you'd be interested in planes." Piper said sarcastically.

"Aw." Aphrodite cooed. "They're flirting."

"They've been doing that for the past year or so." Artemis said slightly disgusted. "Why don't they just get it over with and get together?"

At the questioning looks she got form the other Olympians that were there she said, "What? You know you were thinking it."

Hades considered summoning his skeletons. Now would be a good time but he didn't think Aphrodite would like it.

"So you're not going back to Camp Jupiter?" Piper asked.

"Nah." Jason said. "Besides, Frank has the role of leader under lock. I'll visit from time to time but right now I want to focus on what's important in my life. Thalia and I are going to rent an apartment so we'll have a place to stay."

"Is Thalia interested in planes too?"

"Yeah," Jason mused. "But just the design process. Not the actually going into the air part."

They sat in silence for a while before Piper spoke up.

"So what's important in your life right now?" Piper asked hesitantly. He swallowed hard and wanted to blurt everything out but she was right next to him and he became nervous.

She sighed and got up. "I'll see you later Jason." Maybe she should just stop trying. She was sick of beating around the bush and if he couldn't take obvious and blunt hints then she didn't deserve him.

As she walked away a vision flashed through Jason's eyes. Him growing up without Piper. Leading a depressed life. Being successful and taking the next step with some other women...

She was halfway to the door when he got up and ran to her almost pushing her down. As they both regained their balance Piper frowned at him. "Jason I have to go. My cabin will be worried-"

And then he decided to shut her up with the sweetest kiss in the world. Her knees fell weak so he grabbed her and enveloped her in his arms before she could fall. "I'm sorry Piper. For making you wait so long."

She beamed at him and caressed his face. "Don't worry about it." And she leaned in for another kiss.

Hades pouted. _Now how was he supposed to use his skeletons? Unfair! Retry! Retry!_ He winced at Aphrodite's glare. She turned back around and beamed at the couple in the Zeus cabin. She was glad that they were together but she didn't like how long it took for them to get together. Why were some boys so oblivious?

* * *

><p><strong>Review if you feel like it. <strong>

**Erudite19**


	19. Skeleton Armies and Questions

Thalia Grace stumbled through the undergrowth and the roots. All she had to do was keep the Romans on her trail for some time until Chris, Connor, and Travis secured the flag and won the game. She was extremely tired. This game had lasted longer than the others. Ever since the Greeks and Romans started fighting against each other in Capture the Flag the games had been twice, three times as long as all of the other ones. Guess who was assigned to help her?

"You know Thalia, you could slow down." Leo said. "The Romans aren't going to catch up to us any minute now. We left them behind when they came in contact with that hellhound."

Thalia sighed. "It won't take them long to catch up. It was only one hellhound and it wasn't even Ms. O'Leary."

"I know," Leo said. "But still... you could lighten up. It's not that big of a deal if we lose to them."

Thalia scoffed. "You tell that to Annabeth. She's still not on good terms with the Minerva cabin after they got her drunk two weeks ago."

Leo tried to hide a smirk. "You have to admit, it was kind of funny to see Annabeth drunk."

Thalia passed a tree branch and pulled it back. When she let go of it, it wacked Leo in the face. "Ow!" She hurriedly covered his mouth with her hand. When she thought the coast was clear she took her hand of his mouth and continued walking.

"Okay, I probably deserved that." Leo said. "But I still don't know what's the hurry."

"Oh a lot of things." Thalia said. "To win this game, to keep Annabeth from exploding again, to get away from you..."

"Ouch. Okay that last one hurt."

Thalia sighed. "Leo I'm not interested. I thought I made that perfectly clear the _last_ time you tried to hit on me or the first time as a matter of fact."

"Doesn't mean I can't try." Leo looked away. He walked slower until he was behind her. He didn't want her to see the disappointed look on his face.

"Well you're not going to get anywhere." Thalia said.

They walked in silence for a while.

"Then what do I have to do to be yours?" He asked whistfully.

Zeus' frown deepened. "Oh calm down Zeus." Aphrodite said. "I just think it's wonderful."

"You think almost everything dealing with love is wonderful." Hades sighed.

Aphrodite sent him a glare worse than Demeter's. "Anyways. I think it's just wonderful how they've already admitted everything to each other. It makes the process a whole easier."

"Shh." Dionysus said. "They're talking again."

"Are you actually interested in this?" Artemis asked, a sour look on her face.

"Shh!"

"You can't." Thalia said. Her voice was slightly hoarse and she frowned like she remembered something bad.

"Why?" They stopped walking. They were by Zeus' fist-their original destination-and the boulders provided a hideout so the Romans wouldn't find them.

They sat down and hid in the bushes that had recently started growing near the boulders.

"I didn't leave the Hunters so I could get a boyfriend Leo." Thalia said. "I left so I could take care of Jason and spend time with him. Before I found you guys in the cave I hadn't seen him in Zeus knows how many years. Not to get a boyfriend."

"Okay, so I wasn't part of your original plan-"

"And you still aren't."

"Jeez, someone can be harsh when she wants to." Leo muttered. "But I'd like to be a part of it now."

"Well you can't."

"Why not?" Leo asked. He thought over it for a while and then it clicked. "Why'd you join the Hunters in the first place?"

She stiffened. _Bingo._ Leo thought. "A boy did something to you right? Something bad. And it hurt really bad... What happened?"

"That's none of your business." Thalia said through gritted teeth.

Leo shut his mouth. _Okay, too personal._ "Look, whatever this guy did to you-I don't kow-but if I'm yours I'll try my best not to do it."

Thalia grimaced. Thunder sounded and cloud banks started to roll over Camp Half-Blood.

"You should stop now." Thalia whispered. He could tell that he was hurting her badly so he stopped. They watched the clouds roll overhead until the sun came out and it was peaceful again.

"You should let go Thalia." Leo said. "Don't live your whole life thinking about what one guy did to you and mark them all as horrible."

"I don't." She said. Why was she doing this? Why was she giving him explanations and answers to something she swore to herself she would never talk about again? But it helped a lot. So she didn't mind much.

"Then go on in with life and forgive him. Find someone better."

"Who? _You?_" She asked incredulously.

"Yes." He responded confidently. "And I'd like to be the one to make things right. To fix any doubts that other guy put into your heart." Thalia's heart was pounding against her chest now. She wanted him to stop talking.

"You don't have to pretend." Leo said.

"Pretend what?"

"You know what I mean." Leo said. "Like, even though you reject me countless of times when other people are around you cut me some slack when we're alone. Or how you laugh at my jokes sometimes. Or yesterday, when we were having that war meeting you seemed impressed at my suggestions. How you seem to tolerate me more often and how you joke around with me sometimes."

Thalia cast him a sideways glance and slightly blushed. "I don't-"

"And how you're blushing right now and hoping I don't notice but even though your hair's covering your cheeks slightly I can still see it." This time she blushed harder.

"Can we at least try?" Leo asked.

"I don't know."

"Give me a chance Thalia. Something you gave to that other guy. Please?"

When she didn't answer he took a good long look at her. He memorized how her choppy black hair flowed down her face. How her blue eyes squinted against the sun and reflected a perfect simulation of the blue sky. And her stoic expression like she was contemplating several things in her mind. Then, later on he guessed that's what set him off, he noticed a pale freckle on her cheek.

And he wanted to see if she had anymore. So he reached out and brushed the hair away from her cheek lightly and watched her jump slightly. He cringed at the death glare she gave him but he wasn't focused on that, he was focused on her freckle. So to Thalia's dismay he reached out and brushed her cheek again. A cool current went through her body and when he started to let go she held her hand on his so he wouldn't.

Leo was kind of surprised that Thalia hadn't protested but he took this as a sign and leaned in close. He was a couple centimeters away when Nico arrived with a skeleton army to help push the Romans back but they didn't notice him. But the son of Hades gapped at the couple and the skeletons watched on with Nico as the two leaned in and their lips finally connected. An electric current traveled through Thalia's body and her fingertips as she put her arms around his neck.

When they pulled back they smiled at each other and the head skeleton-a baby skeleton dressed in Greek armor-whispered to Nico in an innocent voice, "Does that mean they're together now boss?"

Nico cocked his head at the couple. "I think so." Then the son of Hades smirked. "First skeleton to spread to ten people that Leo and Thalia are going out gets to hold my sword for five seconds." In an instant the skeletons-Leo and Thalia were still oblivious to them-vanished in a whir of speed.

As Nico walked away from Zeus' fist with his head skeleton the skeleton said, "What about Lacy boss?"

Nico stiffened and tried to hide his blush. "What do you mean?"

The skeleton rolled his eye sockets. "You know what I mean. How long have you had a crush on her?"

"Uh..." Nico stuttered. "I don't know what you're talking about. This matter is closed. Never speak of it again."

"You mean _her_ sir."

"Oh shut up."

* * *

><p><strong>Review if you feel like it.<strong>

**Erudite19**


	20. Wedding Fails Past

Somewhere in Elysium:

"Come on you guys!" Nico said. "We gotta go or else my dad is going to have another heart attack."

"Coming!"

"So you won't give him a slick tongue this time right?" Annabeth asked Percy as she smoothed out his tuxedo.

"Yes." He said, holding back a smile.

"And you'll think before you speak right?"

"Yes mother." Annabeth glared at Percy before giving him a slight peck on the lips. "Fine."

Percy pouted. "Is that all I get?"

"Yes. Because last time you sat at our table the entire wedding and cracked jokes on Hades with Poseidon."

"In my defense," Percy said. "We we're slightly drunk."

"You had two shots!" Annabeth looked at Percy incredulously.

"They were extremely strong." She started walking away but he pulled her back and planted a firm kiss on her lips and she didn't really mind much.

"So, no matter how excited you get you're not going to burst into flames again right?" Thalia asked Leo.

Leo sighed. "I'll try. It's not like I did it on purpose last time."

"You almost burned down Persephone's garden." Thalia deadpanned as she fixed his tie.

"It was an accident."

Thalia resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Just make sure you don't do the same thing this time."

"Yes ma'am."

"I did not." Connor smiled at Drew.

"Yes you did." She teased back. "I saw you reach for Hades's wedding band. We got it on tape. You're just lucky Persephone threw the tape into the River Styx after the fail of a wedding that was."

"Whatever." Connor said. "I gotta go check on Nico wanders over to Lacy's house again and accidently starts making out with her like last time."

"I'll see you there 'kay?" Drew asked.

"Okay. Stay beautiful."

"No, I will not crack rude and immature jokes on the Lord of the Dead Clarisse." Chris said.

Clarisse sent him a look. "Or the goddess of wheat."

Clarisse held back a smile. "Okay, I just wanted to make sure. You remember what happened last time right?"

"That was Travis's fault. He's the one that started the italian and wheat field jokes." Chris shrugged. "And I just couldn't resist after that."

"Demeter turned you into a wheat of field for _three_ hours." Clarisse said. "Chris I'm serious. No more-" He cut her off with a kiss and she decided that it might not be bad to crack one or two jokes.

"Uh-uh." Katie shook her head. "No! Absolutely not! No squirt rose. No clown nose. No electric zapper. Travis we're going to a wedding. Not a kid's party."

Travis sighed. "Alright, alright."

"Besides, last time you brought the zapper you tried to zap Zeus and he zapped you back with ten thousand volts of lightning. You're just lucky you're already dead."

"I know, I know. I won't bring anything this time."

"So you won't get too happy this time?" Hazel asked.

"No." Frank said. "It wasn't _my_ fault I smashed into the wedding cake last time. Leo burst into flames!"

"I can hear you!" Leo yelled from across the hall.

"Yeah, yeah." Frank muttered.

"Yeah," Hazel said. "But if _somebody_ hadn't already been fueled with sugar cookies and soda then maybe he wouldn't have ran around in circles and smashed into Persephone's cake."

"I sent her a card to apologize."

"So did Percy, Travis, Connor, Leo, Chris, and Jason." Hazel said. "And you all used the same card."

"We were low on money."

Hazel rolled her eyes. "Just promise you won't embarass us again."

"I promise."

"It was an accident!" Jason said.

"You ended up flying in the air with Aphrodite clinging on to you. My mother almost blasted you into a beauty kit and Ares almost ran you over with his motorcyle!" Piper raised a delicate eyebrow.

"In my opinion, someone should _not_ pop a champagne bottle that loud." Jason said. Piper sighed. "Just don't reach for any goddesses next time."

"Okay."

* * *

><p><strong>Review if you feel like it. Happy New Year.<strong>

**Erudite19**


	21. Wedding Fails Present

Nico spied his father pacing behind the curtains behind the alter.

"Sup, pops." Nico said nonchalantly.

Hades almost jumped into the air. His muscles tensed and he had a fireball ready in his hand when he turned around to face his son. Hades looked at Nico in irritation for a while.

"Wow," Nico marveled at the black flames. "It's been a long time since I've seen that. Or something like it at least."

Hades sighed and relaxed his muscles, the shadow of a memory passing over his face. The fireball disappeared from his hand. "Since the battle of Manhattan I believe."

Nico nodded in agreement then surveyed his father. He smiled feebly. "You've got the wedding hots again don't you?"

Hades nodded and swallowed hard.

"It's okay pops." Nico said. "Just relax and if you're still nervous when you're out there, imagine Demeter's wheat entwined hair on fire. I'm not going to lie, it makes me feel better sometimes."

Hades scowled. "Not me. It reminds me of your friends little fire display last time."

* * *

><p>Outside the temple:<p>

Leo twitched. Thalia glanced at him, "You okay?"

"Yeah," He replied. "Just a momentary feeling."

"Don't get too excited okay?"

"I won't."

* * *

><p>Nico smiled sheepishly. "Oh, right."<p>

"Then what am I going to do?" Hades asked. They stood there for some time in silence.

Nico shrugged. "Focus on something other than her?"

"Aphrodite would find a way to kill me." Hades replied.

"Imagine everyone naked?"

Hades shivered. "Too graphic."

"Imagine _her_ naked?"

"I've never seen her naked!" Hades yelled. They were quiet for a while.

"That was kind of loud Pops."

The undead god sighed. "I know. How many people do you think heard?"

"I think it depends on who's heard it before and dismisses it as regular background noise and who's never heard it or questions your choice of words... Go out there and wing it out because you're awesome and this is nothing for you?" Nico suggested.

"I hope I can_ try_ to do that." Hades mumbled. "Tell me Nico, how did _you_ stand it? What with all the disrespectful siblings and annoying relatives?"

"Pops, my wedding was a _long_ time ago." Nico said.

Hades shrugged. "It would help if I had something... Yes, well I suppose it _was_ a long time ago. Very well. I shall brave this like a man."

Nico nodded. "Good luck Pops."

He was about to go back to the front of the temple where all the guests were waiting when his father put a hand on his shoulder.

He turned around and faced his father. "And Nico? If you can find any, send me some help."

"Of course." He bowed respectfully and left his father pacing once again.

Nico rejoined his friends outside of the temple. It was hard at first because there were so many guests gathered about. Frank was the first to spot him.

"'Bout time you got here di Angelo." Frank said. Frank pointed to Lacy who was talking to Persephone. "She's been waiting for you for some time now."

Nico smiled at Lacy then frowned a little at Persephone. "Keep her talking to Persephone alright?"

Frank shrugged. "I'll try. Won't be easy though. Persephone's not much of a talker."

"Mhm." Nico nodded. He spotted Poseidon and Zeus to the back of the crowd of people. _Oh well, some help is better than no help. _Adjusting his tie and swallowing hard he walked up to the two.

_It's surprising they could be in the same room without blasting each other. _Nico thought.

"Yes well," Poseidon sighed. "If we did anything big brother would probably find a way to kill us."

Nico paled. _They could read his thoughts?_

Zeus chuckled. "I'm sure he'd have no problem finding a place to throw us in down here."

Nico took a deep breath. "My lords, my father-"

"Yes, yes." Poseidon waived his hand in frustration. "Big brother has gotten nervous again and wants to consult with us. It baffles me, however, why you've come to us for help."

Zeus scoffed. "What baffles me, is why he's renewing vows. I mean, he's already stuck with her for eternity. Why are we down here?"

Poseidon sighed. "Because, any man who has to scream at his son 'I've never seen her naked' at his own wedding for practically almost everyone to here and he's been married to her for thousands of years, that man deserves a medal."

"Why, Poseidon?" Zeus asked slightly irritated.

"Because it shows he hasn't once touched her wrong." Poseidon said, unaware that Hades was behind him and Zeus. "Unlike _certain_ gods who force others into marriage."

They glared at each other momentarily.

"You wouldn't _dare_ argue at my wedding, would you?" Hades spoke up.

The two brothers turned around swiftly. "No, not at all." Zeus said swiftly. "Brother, it's been ages."

Poseidon stared at Zeus with a blank look on his face. "It's only been five months. We haven't seen him since the solstice."

"It was a metaphor Poseidon. Of course I wouldn't expect a fish for brains to understand."

"Airhead!"

"Fish tank water!"

"Ozone layer!"

Hades gave the both of them a devilish look. "I request your help and you argue at my wedding?"

Poseidon sighed. "Why don't you just imagine her naked?"

Hades' eye twitched. Poseidon, sensing his anger, stepped back a little.

Zeus shrugged. "Do what I do, wing it." Then he cracked a smile and laughed a little. "Get it? Wing it? It's hilarious. Ahh."

"Right.." Nico said. "Well I'll just let you three talk this out and be on my way."

"Just wait one second Di Angelo." Poseidon said. "What'd you do at your wedding? If you're anything like your father you must've freaked out just like him."

"Sir, If I remembered, I would tell you. But I don't." Nico frowned.

"Nonsense." Zeus said. He looked at his brothers. "I believe a memory check is in order?"

The three brothers smiled devilishly and nodded. Then they all pulled out their items of power, looked at Nico, and before the son of Hades knew it, he was falling to the ground and experiencing the worst pain he had ever felt as a spirit. The only pain in fact.

* * *

><p><strong>So I haven't updated in some time. A very long time. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, though. Until next week I suppose? Hopefully? Probably?<strong>

**Erudite19**


	22. Teenage Dream 2

"Unce, unce, unce, unce-"

"Unce, unce, unce, unce-"

"Whoooa!... That's hot." Connor and Travis Stoll turned heads slowly towards each other, lips pursed, a smug look on their faces.

"Mhm."

"Mhm-mhm-mhm."

"Mhm-mhm-mhm-mhm-mhm."

"Could you two just stop?!" Nico almost yelled.

Travis sucked in a breath. He loudly whispered. "I think he's about to pop." Connor nodded, a somewhat serious look on his face and leaned closer to Nico. He put a crooked finger in his mouth, pursed his lips and pulled the finger out producing a loud pop.

Nico, steadying his breath, asked the two brothers, "How long is this spell supposed to last anyways?"

Travis shrugged. "Why? Getting ann-"

He zoned out leaving the group in silence. Connor snapped his fingers in front of his face.

"-oyed already?" He giggled for a second. "We don't know. The Aphrodite and Apollo cabin didn't make known a specific time limit."

"Yeah." Connor said. "They just said to stay away from them.. _or else_!"

"OOOOOOOOOOH!" Travis waved his hands in the air and wiggled his fingers. "That _and_ we drunk a whole pack of energy drinks this morning. So-"

"Whatever." Nico sighed. He started walking away and the two followed him to his dismay. _Maybe if I ignore them, they'll leave me alone. It's either that or I'll have to scare the brown out of their hair._

So he kept walking but they kept following. Finally he reached his cabin and was about to go in but then she was there...

"Forsooth... how can such a beautiful angel grace the land? She makes my plutonian heart ache and ponder how heaven feels." He sighed...

_Did I just say that out loud?!_

He slowly turned to Connor and Travis, who miraculously, were the only ones there. And unfortunately, were there. Then, what he dreaded and prayed wouldn't happen did.

They both started at once. "You think she's hot!"

Then Travis. "You thinks she's spicy!"

And Connor. "You like her skirt!"

Then Travis finished. "But you ain't nasty!"

_Bam! _They jumped when Nico slammed his cabin door.

"Oh well." Connor shrugged. "What do you want to do now?"

Travis looked around and finally stopped at the lake. A huge grin spread on his face. "Let's go primary school."

Connor knitted his eyebrows. "What are you-Oh... Yeah!"

* * *

><p>After flying up the tree with no difficulty whatsoever (thanks to Hermes's flying shoes), the two sat on seperate tree branches and looked down at the couple in residence.<p>

"You ready bro?" Connor whispered.

"Let's do this! Proceed with operation."

"Three, two, one..."

"Percy and Annabeth sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes-"

They landed on the floor with a thud and coughed up all of the water they'd inhaled when Percy washed them out of the tree and unto the other side of the lake.

"Then," Percy yelled across the lake, "Comes a mouthful of lake water!"

"Ugh.." They moaned, Connor did so even louder when he looked forward and came face to shoe.

_Crap! Pink stilettos! And they're tapping like they're angry and unpatient. And they're attached to feet-which means they're attached to a body!_

He looked up tentatively. "Hi honey drop..."

"Connor," Drew said in a controlled voice. "Where have you been?"

"Well. I don't think you want to know that."

"Yes I do."

"No... I don't think you want to know."

"_Yes. I. Do._"

_I'm dead._

"Okay, um-"

"See," Travis started. "What had happened was-"

"Never mind." Drew said. "I don't want to know." She walked away, leaving Connor a perfect view of certain assets.

"Take note little brother." Travis said. "That's how you get a girl to lose interest in what you have to say. Use a worn out line like that and have some one else say it while they're next to you. That's something one of the greatest philosophers in the world would tell you."

Connor snapped out of his gaze when he couldn't see Drew anymore. "And who, dare I ask, is the greatest philosopher in the world?"

Travis thought for a second. "Tina Fey!"

"Yeah!" They high-fived.

"Can we get off the grass now? My body's starting to itch."

"Yeah, I think there's a fish stuck in my pants."

"What?! How could you have possibly spent all this time not freaking out?"

"I don't know. You want to fry it?"

"As long as we don't eat it!"

"Who said WE were going to eat it?"

"Yay-ah!"

"Will you two be quiet already? We're all right behind you?" The two turned to see the Aphrodite and Apollo cabins behind them.

"You guys should really whisper when you're planning this stuff." Piper said. She turned to Will. "I don't think they understood our little talk with them."

"You know Piper," Will smiled. "I think you're right?"

Travis squeled. His words were caught in his throat. Connor, however, was very vocal. "PORQUE?! Por favor! Ayúdame!"

* * *

><p>"Pfft," Hermes said. "Tina Fey... Everyone knows it should be Chris Rock."<p>

"What about those mimes in France?" Apollo said. "I've always thought they had a lot to say."

Hermes looked slightly offended. "No Apollo."

"But-"

"No. Just no."

* * *

><p><strong>Well there you go. The first chapter I've written in an eternity. An eternity is several months for me... All my fans and everyone who kept on visiting my stories, regardless of my absence, I want to thank everyone. I know some of you probably sent your imaginary friends after me (inside joke :^) ) but it's all cool. <strong>

**I'm still here, I've just been extremely busy the last few months. I will definitely try to update this weekend or next weekend (no promises) but expect as much as I can during the holidays. DEFINITELY. I'll try to update on PJO and HoO Read the Sea of Monsters asap but first I have to read that story and remember all of the miniscule details. I also have to read The Mark of Athena-which I will try to do as fast as I can. **

**Any who (that's such an outdated term. How do you spell it anyways? Is it with the two words together or apart? Nevermind.) ANYWAYS, until the next time I update.**

**Erudite19 (I grew up with Sesame Street-If you're from America and have been watching the presidential debate, you know what I mean.) **


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